the mystery of the 13th fairy

 The 13th fairy 
as chaos principle

The tale of Sleeping Beauty starts off with the birth of a princess. There is to be a feast to celebrate the happy event
Only 12 of the 13 fairies in the realm are invited to this grand occasion by the King, because he has only twelve golden plates for them to eat off. The number "12" stands for order and completion in numerology (the science of the quality rather than the quantity of numbers), such as is symbolised also in the 12 signs of the Zodiac.

The 13th fairy, the principle of chaos and transformation, the factor we always ignore, is not invited. Yet she is an irrepressible principle, for life does not tolerate stagnancy.
Eleven of the fairies had bestowed their gifts on the infant princess: Virtue, beauty, riches, gentleness, intelligence and everything that is to be desired in this world. Just then the 13th fairy gate-crashes the party and announces that the princes will die, after pricking herself on a spindle on her 15th birthday.

The 12th fairy (=the energy of order and completion) had not yet given her gift to the baby. She does not have the power to override the chaos principle. All she can do is to ease it and so she says: "The princess will not die, but fall into a sleep of a hundred years duration.

There is great wisdom in this tale.
Wholeness (the 12th fairy) is the energy that unites us with the rest of the world. And when we are truly at one with it, we can never really die, all we can do is take part in the adventure of transformation.
In spite of all efforts to prevent it, the prophecy came about. The whole palace and all its inhabitants fell asleep with the princess. A thick hedge of thorns started growing until the whole castle was hidden from view. (Whenever we find a thicket or a thorny hedge in an old story, we may be sure that some form of regeneration or balancing is going on, as all thorny and prickly plants in Nature have the job of repairing injury and trauma to the land, or addressing monoculture, etc).

From time to time a Prince came and endeavored to penetrate through the hedge, but it was impossible. The thorns held them prisoner and they perished. However when a hundred years had gone by and Prince Charming approached, the thorns turned into fine large flowers and of their own accord made a way for him to pass through. When the prince found the princess, he could not help but kiss her. Just then she woke up and greeted him with smiles. The whole palace woke up as well and in due time their wedding was celebrated and they lived to the end of their lives happy and contented.
Like all good fairy tales, there are many levels of meaning in this story.