Through The Looking Glass: Awakening Your Inner Alice

By Sunni Chapman

"How strange it is, to be anything at all."

Everybody loves Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll's mad-beautiful tale of one young girl’s trip down into the under-world, through the looking glass—and back again. The reason it is so beloved by people of every age, race, creed, and religion is because of its poignant reflection of the inner-journey, the process and unfolding of self-discovery. Not everyone knows this; some just know that the story enchants them, and that it's full of imagination and wonder. Whatever your take is on the story, if you're reading this…chances are you're a fan. Chances are that this story has called to you at various points in your life, and that it still calls to you, and that is not coincidental…for there are pieces of yourself still hidden in this story, and Alice's journey…is your own.

Every character in every story that's ever been told is a part of yourself; a representation of all the parts that make up the whole of your being. It’s like when you interpret a dream—every character in the dream is ultimately you, a part of you… a fragment of the whole. The stories, myths, and legends of our time all work to resolve these fragmented pieces, to bring them to the whole, and to return us to the truth of our being.

Like a secret code that has now been deciphered, this book reveals the messages hidden in this beloved classic tale, and will help you to unfold your own mystery, understand your own story, and reclaim your own hero—so that you may rise, fearlessly, into the Wonderland of life itself.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Mar 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781626752399

Book preview

Shaden

Everybody loves Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll's mad-beautiful tale of one young girl's trip down into the under-world, through the looking glass—and back again. The reason it is so beloved by people of every age, race, creed, and religion is because of its poignant reflection of the inner-journey, the process and unfolding of self-discovery. Not everyone knows this; some just know that the story enchants them, and that it's full of imagination and wonder. Whatever your take is on the story, if you're reading this...chances are you're a fan. Chances are that this story has called to you at various points in your life, and that it still calls to you, and that is not coincidental...for there are pieces of yourself still hidden in this story, and Alice's journey...is your own.

Every character in every story that's ever been told is a part of yourself; a representation of all the parts that make up the whole of your being. It's like when you interpret a dream—every character in the dream is ultimately you, a part of you... a fragment of the whole. The stories, myths, and legends of our time all work to resolve these fragmented pieces, to bring them to the whole, and to return us to the truth of our being.

To me, Alice in Wonderland is more than just a story of self-discovery, or soul-discovery... it is a story of ultimate Self-Realization. To me, it is a story of awakening. Awakening to the ultimate Truth. This story can be interpreted in a plethora of ways, and all of them would be right—because interpretation is entirely dependent on the current state of consciousness of the person who is doing the interpreting. There IS NO hard and fast meaning behind the story; it is in the eye of the beholder. It's all perspective...as is everything in life.

So it is with this in mind that I invite you on this journey with me—to walk your path through Wonderland, to walk fearlessly through every reflection that appears in the looking glass of life, to pick up all the missing pieces of yourself, and to reclaim your inner-Alice: that feverish curiosity and desire to know, that wildly un-sure venturer who's willing to dive head-first down the dark of a rabbit-hole, that fearless heroine in you who questions EVERYTHING, and turns the whole apparent world upside down—if for no other reason than to thwart the convention that's been trying to stifle you all the days of your life. This is the Alice that we ARE. This is the Alice we are stepping back INTO.

Because there are so many different versions and adaptations of this story, and since everyone has grown up with a different one of those (the books, the movies, etc.), it was incredibly hard for me to choose which version to go with. I wanted to stick to the main characters and events from the original books, but after much internal debate, I decided to base this particular exploration on the more recent screen-adaptation written by Linda Woolverton and directed by Tim Burton. Not just because I heart Tim Burton's movie magic like crazy, but because I particularly loved the way the story unfolded and shone its theatrical light on a more modern-progressive and yet conflicted female heroine. I know that is probably going to send literary fanatics everywhere into a puritanical rage, and I'm sorry, but this is what called to my heart. This Alice is pronouncedly more balanced between the feminine and masculine polarities, she is more of a woman than a girl, and she's up against all the conventional expectations that many of us have found ourselves up against. It brings the whole thing beautifully current. Alice's sweet rise into her own humanity and integrity at the end of the movie was just the icing on the cake.

The other added benefit is that when you watch the movie after reading this book, the stunning visual imagery and music will help to even further drive home the impact and sinking-in effect of the reflections you have embarked on here. Plus, if you haven't before, you'll begin to pick up on all kinds of juicy lines that have taken on a resonant new meaning for you. In this way, instead of a literary interpretation it can be thought of as the (extremely unofficial) companion guide to Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Besides, one day in the not too distant future, this too will be known as a classic film. If you've seen this film and for some reason didn't love it, please, give it another chance. Join me on this journey into the Wonderland of your internal life, and take back the Alice that you are. Then...when you're much-muchier, watch it again...I know that it will surprise and delight you.

Although this adaptation is based on Carroll's book Through the Looking Glass, it does not actually depict the scene of Alice going through the mirror, and neither does this book. The book is titled as such, however, because it is a powerful metaphor for the spiritual journey: moving through all that you appear to be, and seeing who you truly are. It speaks to the truth that this world is a reflection of your thinking, and that freedom is acquired not by changing your thinking, or trying to re-wire it (although that might hold you for a while), but by moving beyond thinking, and truly beginning to see the illusion that our minds are perpetually creating.

In the safe and loving confines of this book, your Alice will bravely move through the mirror, and discover the profound freedom that lies beyond all of our fixed and painful judgments and opinions. With the help of this cast of supporting internal characters, we will move through our no-thing-ness and our some-thing-ness and wrap it all up in a sweet little bow, to deliver it back to ourselves—as the priceless gift of this one precious life.

Think of Alice as your natural state: curious, full of wonder, and highly averse to conformity. The world has been trying to make you proper in one way or another since the day you were born... and you don't know why, but it rubs you all-kinds-of the wrong way. It is as if your whole world is screaming, Be smarter! Be better! Be straighter! Be prettier! Achieve more! Do more! Get more! Accumulate more! But something inside you smells the stink of it...something deep inside of you knows the great scam of it all. So you do as they tell you, and you're almost worn down to a deadened state by it, but you keep plugging along, because you sense that there's something so much better than all of this—so much MORE than all of this—and so you quietly go about the business of your life. But all the while, you're daydreaming...you're using your imagination to create yourself a life-raft of sorts, something to carry you until you can find a better way. That's what daydreams do, they hold us. They hold us until we can find the REAL THING, the genuine article... the proverbial real McCoy, within ourselves.

Some of you may know what that genuine article is, and some of you may not yet know; it