Once upon a time, a glimpse into the meaning.

Some day you will be old enough to read fairytales again.
– C.S Lewis

As children we understand innate and fundamental truths about fairytales – truths that we often begin to forget as we get older. And then, over the course of our lives we slowly start to recognise those truths, but this time on a more conscious level. 

You see, the truths in fairytales are connected to our innermost nature and will manifest throughout time, over and over again, across lands and through generations.

“Once upon a time” does not mean “once” alone but “once for all”. 

Once upon a time. In a time out of time, in an endless eternity. 

Fairytales are deep rumblings from an unconscious source within a culture. They are rich in wisdom unadulterated by our conscious minds or modern proclivities. 

Once upon a time is both a real event at one point in time and eternal event at no single point in time. An event that will manifest over and over again throughout history because it is the reflection of an eternal truth. 

Arthur is both real and not real. A myth as strong as that can not be sustained by one man. Once upon time, once for all. Myth is suprahistorical. 

‘We have come from God, and inevitably the myths woven by us, though they contain error, will also reflect a splintered fragment of the true light, the eternal truth that is with God. Indeed only by myth-making, only by becoming ‘sub-creator’ and inventing stories, can Man aspire to the state of perfection that he knew before the Fall. Our myths may be misguided, but they steer however shakily towards the true harbour, while materialistic ‘progress’ leads only to a yawning abyss and the Iron Crown of the power of evil.’

– J.R.R. Tolkien