The Star-Child

What does this mean for you? You have had to grow up recently, from child to adult, from peasant to king. Note that this transition is not for the faint of heart, for it demands sacrifice and willingness to change which you have done. You have done well to get this far.

The tale goes something like this: Once upon a time, two woodcutters were traveling through a wintery forest. It was bitterly cold and not even the animals of the wood could stand the cold except for a couple of owls who loved the wintertime chill. The Woodcutters, however, marched and reluctantly trudged through the snow to try and return to their home; a small village where their families lived. They too didn’t love the cold, but then, as they were walking, a brilliant star fell from the sky and landed on the earth not far from them. Thinking it was gold or silver, they raced to find where it landed. Instead of gold or silver though, they found a small child wrapped in a decorative blanket and adorned with an amber necklace around his neck. 

Since they were both poor, one of the woodcutters suggested leaving the baby to the elements, but the other couldn’t imagine that; he was a kind man who couldn’t harm a fly, especially since this child seemed to have come from the heavens. So he took the baby boy back to the village where he and his wife raised him like their own. He came to be known as the Star-Child. 

Well, as the boy grew up, people thought him absolutely beautiful. He had ringlets of curls, golden as the sun, with fair cheeks and ruby red lips. ‘Handsome’ was too modest a word to describe the Star-Child. But the beauty of the body does not always equal the beauty of the heart, and he turned cruel. As the village thought him beautiful, he too thought this, and came to despise those who were not as pretty as he. Though he could play all kinds of instruments and possessed many talents, his heart was black.The other boys in town grew nasty with him, desiring nothing more than to emulate the beautiful Star Child.

One day a beggar woman came into town, and the kids, led by the Star-Child, mocked her and threw stones at her. His father, the woodcutter, saw this and was torn by the sigh. When he rebukes the Star-Child, he then declares that he was no son of the woodcutter. “Perhaps not,” said the simple woodcutter, “but I knew pity when I found you in the forest. You too should know pity.” Although unhappy with it, the family took the beggar-woman into their little home. She  asked about the Star-Child and ultimately found that he was her son. 

When the Star-Child hears of this, he scoffs at the idea. “I am so beautiful. How could someone such as I be the son of an ugly beggar?” 

“I searched the world for you, my dear son–my dear and precious Star-Child.” 

But he rejected her and she left brokenhearted. With nothing to do, he returned to look for his friends, but they suddenly rejected him. “We can’t be friends with a boy who has the face of a toad!” they said. 

It was there that he turned to find himself face to face with a well, and there he found his face reflected back at him, no longer beautiful or young, but ugly and warted with the face of a toad. The sin of pride became realized before him. The horror of it all chilled his bones. He now understood what it meant to not be beautiful or loved and the Star-Child then sets out on a journey to find his lost mother. 

So the Star-Child wandered. And wandered. And wandered. For three years he searched for his mother, but never found her. With no hope, he wandered toward a city where he became the unwilling slave to a dastardly magician who demanded that he quest for three pieces of gold, one white, one yellow, and one red. Not only that, but he must do it within a day or be whipped. 

Helpless and alone, he cries while trudging in the forest. For how could he possibly find what he sought? While walking, he discovered a hare caught in a trap, and weeping, he took pity upon the small animal and freed him. If only his own freedom could be so easily won. 

But the Hare then declared, “Since you helped me, I shall help you. What can I do for you?”

Surprised, the Star-Child replied that he needed a piece of white gold. And lo and behold, the Hare bounded around until he found a piece of white gold! 

“How ever can I thank you for this?” he asked, awed. 

“There is no need for that,” said the Hare, “for you have freed me. This is nothing by comparison!”

With a wide grin, the Star-Child ran back into town, but a leper on forest road was begging for money, for anything to help him. The Star-Child was moved to pity at this sight despite the impending whipping he would receive, and gave the Leper the piece of white gold. The magician of course whipped him for his failure. 

This process continued two more times, the punishments becoming more and more vile, and on the final time, when the magician sent him out for the piece of red gold, he said, “If you do not return by nightfall with the gold I seek, you shall die.” So he set out again, heavy at heart, but the Hare nonetheless helped him again, for the Star-Child had given him his freedom. And again the Leper on the forest road begged for the gold and the Star-Child was again moved to pity and gave the Leper his gold–and ultimately, his very life. 

But something changed in the moments thereafter. 

The guards of the city, upon his return to town, suddenly bowed down to him. “Our lord has returned to us!” they said, startling the Star-Child. “How beautiful he is!” How could this be? thought the Star-Child, for he was ugly with the face of a toad. Surely they must be mocking me and my misery… Soon the Star-Child found himself thrust towards the palace, where the priests and nobles surrounded him and declared him king!

“How could this possibly be?” he demanded in disbelief. “I am ugly and the son of a beggar-woman. I am no king.”

“It has been prophesied to us that our lord would return on this day, and so you have.” He also found that his face was as beautiful as it once was, but it was no cause for joy. 

“I am unworthy,” he said, “for I have yet to find my mother and have her forgiveness.” He turned his head away, but found his mother and the Leper standing side by side in the crowd behind him and rushed to them, begging her forgiveness at her feet. When he looked up and his mother made him rise, he found that they had transformed into the King and Queen of the land. 

Then the Star-Child was declared king himself, transformed, forgiven, and full of kindness and mercy during his reign. 

So ends the tale of the Star-Child.

Ultimately this is a story about personal transformation. Now, before you find any hesitance to align yourself to the Star-Child, it should be noted that not all his traits are yours, but metaphors for what could be your faults and growing pains. Not everyone is perfect, after all, but the Star-Child, like you, has overcome his greatest faults and learned from them. Whether or not you too have gone though such great pains to overcome them, I cannot say, but it is true that you have transformed. Perhaps you are at a turning point in your life, or maybe you have already passed the threshold and came out a better person, like the Star-Child became a king. However this may be for you, the transformation aspect of this story is key to you. 

But can it be said that the Star-Child overcame all his troubles on his own? Actually, yes. When looked at from a metaphorical point of view, the characters of the Hare and Leper can be understood as aspects of the Star-Child himself. The Hare who helped him can be considered a kind of inner guidance and intuition to find the gold. Whatever your “gold” is in reality is the key here. For you, it may have been a personal helper or guide. Maybe it wasn’t a person at all, but yourself that made you undergo this transformation. The Leper has the same purpose. As for the Mother, she can be understood as the catalyst for change. There are many archetypal points within this fairytale, from the well as a metaphor for personal reflection to the head of a toad as the metaphorical ugliness of the heart. 

In the end, dear reader and established Star-Child, you have overcome many obstacles to get here and that has not gone unnoticed by those around you. With kindness and a new soul to call your own, long may you reign.