In most versions of the the tale, the Queen sends off the huntsman to lead Snow White into the forest to kill her, but is unable to because he has fallen in love with her. Snow White takes refuge in the forest where 7 dwarfs adopt her. The Queen, learning that she is still not the fairest, tries several times to kill Snow White, finally "succeeding" when Snow White eats the poisoned apple. However, a traveling Prince comes upon Snow White and convinces the dwarfs to leave Snow White with him. This awakens Snow White and both are united in a wedding in the Prince's kingdom.
Like many esoteric stories, you can interpret these stories and fairy tales on several different levels, just like the Tree of Life in Kabbalah which can be used as a representation of the human, planetary, solar or even cosmic levels. The following is an example of how the Snow White story may be interpreted:
In our lives, how often is it that our ego (the Queen) overcomes our capacity for perfection and doing good (Snow White) such that we are stuck in the quagmire of negativity and conflict (the forest). However, spiritual systems use the 7-chakra system (7 dwarfs) in order to train and develop ourselves to achieve enlightenment and perfection, so that we are not completely lost. The other part of the story is that while our ego rules (the Queen in power), our kundalini lies dormant and cannot rise (Snow White in death). While the huntsman (incarnated soul) was not able to totally save Snow White, the Prince (our Higher Self) will descend through our chakras (convince the 7 dwarfs) so that it will lead to the revival of Snow White (awakening of the kundalini). The Prince then leads Snow White back into his kingdom for their wedding (kundalini rises up to the crown chakra, leading to enlightenment).
The symbol of the wedding is prevalent in different spiritual systems. For example, we have the chymical wedding of the alchemists and the constant reference of Israel being the bride of God in the Bible. This spiritual wedding is the goal of esoteric systems such as yoga (yoga means "union").
When we look at the symbolism of the Queen and her mirror, we get the sense that this attitude of self-absorption is what causes the problems and divisiveness in the story. But behind the self-absorption, I also see a desire for acceptance. This need for acceptance is an unwritten rule of society, as shown in this 2005 study about the effects of social acceptance on willpower and self-regulation. The article is 7 pages long so I'll just summarize it here.
In essence, there were two sets of test subjects (all college students). One set was made to feel like sh-t by being led to believe they were individually unacceptable to the whole group while the other set was made to feel that they were socially acceptable to everyone else. All test subjects were then individually tested by having a bowl of chocolate chip cookies placed in front of them, with the researchers recording how many cookies each test subject would eat. As the researchers expected, those who were made to feel socially unacceptable ate much more than those who were made to feel accepted.
Why does social acceptance play such a big role in determining behavior? In the modern world, social acceptance is more a matter of status, but in more primitive times, it was literally a matter of life and death. In ancient times, when one lived beyond the boundaries of socially acceptable behavior, one was a liability. It was more than just not contributing to society, the outcast would also be freeloading on the limited resources of the town or city, resources that may be sorely needed in case of a hard winter or famine. Therefore, banishment was usually the punishment, with the outcast left to fend for himself against the elements, wild animals or bandits. Being an accepted member of a community was equivalent to survival. In some ancient societies, they took this a step further. In Sparta, for example, they threw newborn babies off a chasm in Mt. Taygetos if they deemed a baby as deformed and a liability. Essentially, this was a primitive form of eugenics.
Even if one just spends all day playing XBox locked up in one's room, loners today are not really loners because they still partake of the fruits of others' labor such as food and water, commodities that were much harder to collect and stock up on before the advent of the Industrial Revolution. In that sense, we are indeed luckier today.
The ingrained importance of social acceptance inadvertently encourages behavior that is meant to please others. Why do you think having a car, a house and a high paying job (or business) are so important as status symbols? They mark one as acceptable by the norms of today's society. No wonder there are people who are willing to gain all these things by hook or by crook.
I'm not saying we should just do whatever we want without regard to the rights and feelings of others. Quite the contrary, we should be responsible members of society. However, there is a fine line between social responsibility and pegging the value of one's self worth on the opinions of others. The latter is what leads to behavior that inwardly seeks the approval of others and may, ironically, trample on the rights and feelings of others just to win acceptance for oneself. It sounds paradoxical but it seems that behind every act of greed or selfishness is the desire to earn approval from one's peers.
When others criticize you, say bad things about you or simply misinterpret your motives, this certainly signals a need for self-review on your part. But if you finish that introspection and find out that you are really not doing anything wrong and you haven't hurt others whether intentionally or not, then you can still hold your head up high instead of agonizing over the perceptions and opinions of others. This also holds true even in those times it seems no one understands you or appreciates you. It's not arrogance, and it's certainly not indifference. It's simply the product of an honest assessment of oneself and a certainty of one's place in the universe.
In his book The Seat of the Soul, author Gary Zukav postulates that people act the way they do because subconsciously we feel a sense of betrayal and abandonment caused by the separation we feel from our true home, the spiritual realms where our true self dwells. It sort of makes sense because if we do feel abandoned, then that would push us to spend an inordinate amount of time and effort to earn this acceptance, this unity, with others in order to regain that feeling of self-worth that was lost when we incarnated into this physical existence.
If the above statement holds true, then true self-worth can only come by first recognizing, and then realizing, a return to our One True Source. It sounds so simple and cliche but as thousands of years of human history has shown, it's anything but easy. Fortunately, many spiritual systems do exist that provide us the guidelines we need to follow in order to re-experience our inherent divinity.
As sparks of God, how can God not love us or not value us? In God we see our true self-worth, because we are not rejects that accidentally made it this far. We may not know all or see far, but one thing is certain, we do have our place in the universe whether we accept it or not. And when we see that connection and begin to experience it, we finally learn to value ourselves, fairest of them all in the eyes of God, and we do not even need to ask a magic mirror for reassurance.
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