Once upon a time, in an unprecedentedly hot summer, with the rising sun, a Queen gave birth to a girl. She was born with her Sun in conjunction with her Ascendant, and this was a promise of a great destiny.
Do you believe that fate is preordained? While she was sleeping the Queen Mother had a dream. The three Fates gathered around the cradle, dressed in fancy attires, adorned with jewels and waving around magic wands. They were Clotho (spinner), who span the thread of life, Lachesis (allotter) who measured the thread of life, and Atropos (inevitable,) who cut the thread of life. All the three Fates were committed to weaving the human destiny from birth to death.
Clotho gave the girl the wonderful virtue of immaculate beauty. Men’s heads would turn after her, whenever she strolled in a restaurant. Constructors would shout after her whenever she walked the boulevards. Her beauty was going to be dangerous for young hearts. When she made eye-contact with a man, the man would sigh. Blessed was the princess with allurement, and voluptuousness and Clotho gave way to her sister, the Allotter.
Lachesis gave the little princess plenty of gifts. She was meant to be so virtuous that she would gladly share her food with beggars. She would help old people cross the street. No one would be able to resist her lovely, light sense of humor. She would grace everyone with her refined manners, be it King on the throne or a frog in the marsh.
Atropos was cross as usual. She could give no refined gifts to the souls. She was a creature of the dark. That made her life really complicated, but she was already used to giving the unwanted. She often spoke with her shrink for that, and he had proposed a solution: surprise yourself. So Atropos tried to be creative. “When the princess becomes of age she will find a spindle and prick her finger on it.”
“Is that all?” the two sisters spoke enchanted by the augury. That was the most merciful gift Atropos had given anyone. But then Atropos smiled her ominous smile and added: “And then she will die!”
“No!” Lachesis interfered, “You can’t take her life before she has got the chance to delight in the gifts we bestowed on her. When you said that she would prick her finger – that was excellent! Could you try a little more and wish her something less awful?”
“She would prick her finger and fall into a sleep for hundreds of years!” Atropos tried really hard.
“But the dream can be interrupted by …” and both Lachesis and Clotho chanted together: “the kiss of true love!”
When the Queen woke up, she shared with the King what happened. This really influenced the industry of spinning in the kingdom, for the King ordered every possible spindle in the country to be burned. They had to import ready threads from a neighboring country, ruled by a Charming Prince. When the daughter became of age, the King decided to send her portrait to the Prince, just in case he might want to consider asking for her hand.
“Man, she is beautiful!”
The Prince couldn’t eat and couldn’t sleep after he saw the portrait. He went to his mother and told her that he was enamored with the most beautiful girl in the world, and she was of noble origin – the perfect match for him.
“But you have to test her” – his mother insisted – “If she is going to be the Lady of our Kingdom – you have to make sure she can handle it. It’s quite easy, when you are high-born, to look beautiful, to be rich. There are all kinds of home-made potions, which can enhance a woman’s beauty. If I was you, the future King, I would check how virtuous she is. I would place her outside of her comfort zone. She is used to be beautiful and royal, but can she be a good mother, wife, protector, and nurturer of your Kingdom?”
“Tell me, Queen, what is the greatest virtue of a woman who rules a kingdom?”
“Diligence!” his mother replied without thinking.
The prince wrote to the princess a love letter:
Dearest Princess,
Since I have seen your face, I crave for your full lips and to see that shine in your dreamy eyes. But before I am blessed to be in your company, I would love to have something created from your tender hands. Therefore I am sending to you the wooden spindle, which belonged to my wet-nurse. I hope your pretty fingers will spin the finest thread for my winter pullover. If you manage to do this for me, I will be eternally grateful, moreover, I will ask your dainty hand in marriage and be your lawfully wedded husband. Find attached my portrait.
Atropos and her ominous smile!
It’s not hard to reckon that the princess pricked her finger with the spindle the minute it got out of the package. She was not even able to look at the portrait – she fell on her canopy bed and sank into deep sleep. She started dreaming of a handsome prince, who had heard the news of her hibernation and was riding on his mighty, black stallion as fast as the wind, to come save her from a terrible fate.
Happy ending! The moment of the kiss was a moment of bliss. They both were enamored – and this is where this story actually has to start. For we want to learn about their children and grandchildren, their moments of glory, their obstacles, and how did they overcome them… The fairy tale ends, destiny begins!
