I loved the show, “Once Upon a Time”. Given my love of fairytales, this probably isn’t surprising since it’s a show about fairytale characters being cursed to live in the real world. I mean, how much cooler can you get? I loved the deeper story lines and how they put their own twists on the classic fairy tales. Another thing that appealed to me was some of the aspects that were a reflection of the Gospel. As I said in my post about Hades and Persephone, the stories that resonate the most usually carry elements or reflections of the Gospel and the greatest Story ever told. Even though I am sure they didn’t intend to bring elements of the Gospel into their show, they did have elements. They used of a lot of the light magic vs. dark magic, good vs. evil. The characters all had some draw to darkness and weren’t all perfect or full of light. They had a Savior and a Dark One. Threads of redemption ran through the stories as those who were considered “evil” or “dark” found love and had their stories redeemed because someone took time to show them that they were more than their darkness and dark magic.
In the fifth season of the show, they trek to the underworld where Hades is ruler. Many aspects of the show piqued my interest on many occasions, and the underworld was very intriguing. If you haven’t seen the show, the fairytale characters were cursed to live in our world in a mystical town in Maine. There is an iconic clock tower in the town that is the center of many of the goings on in the town. When they go to the underworld, it is a distorted reflection of the fairytale town in Maine. The iconic clock tower is on the ground and looks like it was knocked off or fell because of the impression it left on the street. It looks like the mystical town in the real world, only very distorted and dark and dilapidated.
The Dark Realm is a lot like that in my second book, Beauty Redeemed. You see it as dark and dilapidated. The structures look palatial, but they are very obviously falling apart and crumbling and not whole. There are toxic smells, everything is dying or dead. It is like a haunted house that you can’t ever get out of. It is quite a different look than the season-based realms, that though they have their own problems and spots of darkness, they at least have sunshine and life in them. Julianna, Princess of the Spring realm, gets lured into the Dark realm by Luscian, the Lord of Darkness, because she is so convinced that her ties too darkness are too great, making it impossible for her to truly be a Princess of Light. During her time in the Dark Realm, Julianna sees a unique tree in the courtyard. The tree has a deep scar in it and Julianna places a hand on it, wishing she could see what caused such a deep scar in the dead-looking tree. Her brother, Gabriel, creates plants and flowers with his magic, but he also has the ability to read plants and can tell when something is wrong with them. You find out that he placed his hand on a tree once when they were children and was able to see what had happened to the tree in his mind’s eye. Julianna has never had flower magic, so when she touches the tree’s scar, she doesn’t expect to actually see anything. To her surprise, a vision plays across her mind.
The vision shows two boys playing together in a courtyard similar to the one she’s in, except the one in her vision is lush and green and full of life and the tree is full of blossoms. The tree in the Dark Realm is described as an ashy scar coming out the ground– wild and unkempt. The courtyard and the tree are a distorted reflection of the same courtyard in the Mage’s realm.
Satan likes to copy God and make things look like how they should to draw people in, but the truth is, it is a distorted reflection of what it is truly supposed to be. Everything he shows us is a facade that is covering the death and decay lying underneath the mask of false beauty and false hope. He makes sin look alluring and beautiful and enticing and provides false promises of acceptance and love if we go down those paths, but just like the underworld in Once Upon a Time and the twin tree/courtyard in Beauty Redeemed, it is just a distorted reflection of the original beauty. Sin’s promise of acceptance, love, and power, end in only temporary satisfaction. You have to keep going back time and time again to keep being filled and get the temporary high of that thing, but it never lasts. Only God and His love are able to completely fill us and bring us everlasting satisfaction.
Be careful of which version you are seeing and accepting as reality. The facade on the false one will eventually come down and the death and decay underneath will be displayed for all to see. The other will shine true no matter what is thrown against it and will always be the real picture of love, mercy and grace that brings restoration and redemption and rebirth to those who seek after it and find it.
Ashley Beach-Author and Storyteller 