What weaves its way like an underground warren beneath the borders of conquest and control, dancing through differences and softening divides, preserving our collective wild sisterhood with the earth across time, cultures and landscapes? The ancient folkloric association between hares, woman, and moon traveled from Asia, through Persia and the Nile, across the forests of Europe and to the Americas, not by conquest and control but by word of mouth through storytellers, pilgrims, elders, weavers, healers and wanderers. The mystery and magic of this trio’s unyielding presence across landscapes and cultures is nothing less than the eternally regenerative aspect of the Earth Herself whispering through worlds and weaving Herself beyond borders untamed and free.
Read MoreCarving Memory, Gathering Bones, Singing Her
La Huesera, the ancient folktale of the mythical Bone Woman of the desert southwest, wanders the arroyos gathering scattered bones of wolves, singing over them until they reassemble and return to life. What if Bone Woman’s song is also ours to sing—the mythic medicine, the nourishing bone broth we can heal from if we dare to gather what’s been forgotten and scattered together at the same table, into the same circle of honoring? Bone Woman is the sacred feminine, known by many names, in many tongues. Her task is not to forge new connections, but to uncover what’s always been there. This is Old Story Medicine, the elixir She offers from her sacred cauldron when the world seems starved of connection, and in need of healing and repair.
Read MoreSelkie & Dragon: Reclaiming The Pelt For Our Times
What wild and precious part of ourselves have we lost and forgotten in the ocean between and betwixt our domesticated divisions, that finding and reclaiming will bring us to a deeper sense belonging? Exploring the synchronicities between two oceanic folktales, the Irish Selkie and Vietnamese Dragon & Crane, is a journey of self-discovery and a form of maritime medicine. Reconnecting these folktales requires that we swim fluidly with the restorative tides of underworld love magic and surrender to the cross cultural currents that transcend our modern national and cultural categories, shifting the way we think of people, place and belonging. . .gifting us with wisdom to weather the stormy seas of our times.
Read MoreIn the Belly of a Whale: The Wisdom of Whales for Times of Upheaval & Chaos
In ancient maritime folklore from around the world, being confronted by a whale serves as a symbol for life’s greatest challenges. Ancient seafaring stories about whales invite us back into a mythical relationship with what overwhelms us, and we discover what the experience is asking of us. In so doing, we discover whales have not just served our physical survival needs throughout the ages, but they have helped us to psychologically grow. Learning the wisdom of whales we enter back into right relationship with the wild, a timeless and enduring shared human value that weaves us back into belonging with the world.
Read MoreThe Sky Goddess: Generously Weaving Together Worlds
Bridging continents and cultures, the Eswatini folktale of Cloud Princess from Africa and the Haudenosaunee folktale of Sky Woman from North America, offer us their shared and relevant wisdom enriching, deepening and expanding our understanding of the meaning of “generosity” in unexpected ways. We learn generosity is the vital and sacred choice that can weave us back into relationship with each other, draw us into closer kinship with the wild, and open ourselves up to belonging to a larger whole.
Read MoreMagical Turtles and Mystical Swords: Twin Legendary Kings from East and West
Remarkably, Great Britain and Vietnam have a shared mythology surrounding a mythical King, a mystical lake, and a magical sword. The mythologies surrounding King Arthur and King Lê Lợi are so astonishingly similar, it is as though they are woven together with a silk thread into belonging with each other. In our disenchanted and divisive world, a synchronicity like this - if we allow it to be our guide - invites us to consider the mystery and interconnectedness of the world. These twin mythologies weave us back into relationship with the Anima Mundi, the Soul of the World.
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Read MoreBoreal Bears and Feral Females: Twin Bear Folktales from East and West
The Norwegian folktale “East of the Sun West of the Moon” and the Japanese (indigenous Ainu) folktale entitled “Crescent Moon Bear” are folktales featuring fearless young women who dare to engage in greater intimacy with a bear whether it is marrying a bear, or having the courage to pluck the whisker of a bear. Both involve traversing a formidable boreal forest landscape to save their husbands from a “spell”. These folktales are so strikingly similar in theme and shared values, giving voice to their parallel nature deepens our sense of interconnected history, and rekindles a feeling of belonging to a shared storied boreal landscape, weaving together people, bears, ancestry, stories and hearts. . .
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