It’s June! And guess what? That means that in a few short weeks, Cinders to Dust–The Alchemical Tales book five–will be out in the world. So, prepare yourself for a month of Cinderella-themed Fun Fact Fridays! 😉

Similar to the fairy tale symbol series we did last fall (with classic entries like Beauty’s rose and the Little Mermaid’s dagger), each post this month will take a closer look at one of the symbols from Cinderella. We’re starting with perhaps the most well-known of all: the glass slipper.

What symbolism could there be to a fancy shoe, you ask? Well, I had my doubts too–but it turns out there’s a lot. Let’s start with the basics. Not every version of Cinderella includes the glass slipper; sometimes it’s a gold slipper, and sometimes it’s not a shoe at all, but a dress or coin or other small token. For today, we’ll focus on shoes. In the most familiar version of Cinderella, the glass slipper is her key to a new life: she leaves it behind at the ball by accident, and then the prince uses it to find her and whisk her away.

(Hmm . . . when I put it like that, the glass slipper kind of sounds like classic whodunit scene-of-the-crime evidence! 😉 )

In a generic way, shoes have historically been associated with earth and the material world. Makes sense, right? This is often cited as one of the reasons we take off our shoes before going into temples or holy places: we’re leaving behind the mundane. Turns out there are also some cultural practices of swapping or giving shoes to mark an agreement. In Northern China, for example, the words for “slipper” and “mutual agreement” are the same. Then of course we have the idea of shoes as a status symbol (especially glass or gold shoes!). Early versions of Santa Claus would leave presents in shoes or stockings, connecting the shoe with the idea of prosperity.

So, what do we make of all this? Well, some scholars do equate Cinderella’s slipper with a spiritual reward or enlightenment. That’s if you see the fairy tale as an allegory for struggling against the confines of the material world before ascending to a more spiritual life. While I can see that argument, I personally like the idea of the prince returning the slipper to Cinderella as the start of an agreement. I also enjoy this modern tidbit that I found in a dream dictionary: in your dreams, “if you recover shoes, [you are] recovering your footing.”

In Cinders, there is, of course, a lost shoe. In fact there are two sets of lost shoes–and one is important evidence! I can’t say more without giving it away, so you’ll just have to wait til next week for more discussion of Cinderella. 😉

Selected Sources

This week I used two different editions of Element Encyclopedias: Nozedar’s Element Encylopedia of Secret Signs and Symbols (2008), and Cheung’s Element Encyclopedia of 20,000 Dreams (2006). I also referenced a scholarly work on spiritual symbolism in fairy tales:

Fohr, Samuel Denis. Cinderella’s Gold Slipper: Spiritual Symbolism in the Grimm’s Tales. London: Quest Books, 1991.

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