Befriending the “monster”, or overcoming one’s fear of the “other”, is a common theme in many folktales where the relationship between the two main characters, one human and the other a wild animal, shifts from one of hunter and prey, to one of intimacy and kinship. You can find this in folktales around the world where humans and the wild are represented as parent and child, ancestor and descendant, siblings, and lovers, with relationships that are characterized by interdependence, reciprocity and mutual respect . .not to mention enchantment and love.
Wolf Woman, also known as Loba Girl, or La Huesera or Bone Woman, is a folktale from the heart of the desert Southwest about “a woman who was a wolf who was a woman” who sifts through the arroyos or dry riverbeds, looking for wolf bones. She reassembles them by a fire over which she sings until its eyes open and it springs back to life! Off it runs like the wind and in the distance you can see it has transformed into a woman laughing. . .or perhaps howling. Folktales like this one There is yet more to this folktale that further develops the idea of a merging of both human and more-than-human, and the gift that this overlapping of identities offers.
These stories’ values stand in stark contrast to how, in the Western industrial world, one’s sense of self and identity is shaped through differentiating from the other, including establishing power over the other, rather than connecting reciprocally and intimately with the other. This can be seen quite clearly in the way humans have related to the wild in the past few hundred years in efforts to industrialize, make “modern” and “develop” wild places. Without a strong sense of deep connection to nature, or a sense that destroying nature is destroying ourselves, the exploitative relationship will continue. Woman Stands Shining (Pat McCabe), a Diné grandmother, activist, artist and speaker talks about this difference between the scientific intellectual way of viewing nature versus the indigenous approach where humans and the wild are in a kinship relationship with each other (Young 2021). She asks us to, “try having a romance with intellect only and see how far you get, and see how enjoyable it is, and that’s really kind of what we’ve been brought into. This modern world paradigm is proposing that we can have this incredible deep, powerful relationship with this exquisite earth and all these exquisite beings that surround us here beyond human, and that we are to do this without the romance, that we are to do this with intellect only!” Being enamored by nature, mesmerized by it, in conversation with it, and moreover, feeling a sense of being mothered by the wild, cared for like the grandchild of a great elder, loved by it like a lover would love us, is the gift that folktales offer.
Baba Yaga & the Falcon is an ancient Slavic folktale about Katrina, a young woman, who befriends and falls in love with a wild falcon. Katrina follows the Falcon and finds her freedom with the help of Baba Yaga, a wilderness creatrix who takes on human form, but who lives intimately with the wild in the heart of the forest.
Ursula K. Le Guin, in her chapter, “The Beast in the Book” in Words are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books (2016) talks about the role myths and folktales have played in the human imagination, and the profound way they shape our psychology. Stories in which animal and human protagonists are close companions, help each other, and can easily communicate contributes to our sense of deep connection to the wild. She says, “Wilderness scares us because it is unknown, indifferent, dangerous, yet it is an absolute need to us; it is that animal otherness, that strangeness, older and greater than ourselves, that we must join, or rejoin, if we want to stay sane and stay alive” (34). Overcoming the fear of the “other”, and the willingness to coexist with the difference in order to fully appreciate the mutual benefit and appreciate the greater gain from the relationship or intimacy, is an underlying theme that ties together so many ancient folktales. It is precisely this universality, the repeated pattern of showing up again and again, that draws attention to itself. It is a voice from the past asking to be heard.
I believe this universal theme in folktales underscores how planetary ecological restoration is a relational job: how tending to the earth requires more than just conservation efforts and technological advancement. If we are to reverse the ecological crisis, we must reestablish our kinship with the wild through re-story-ing ourselves into belonging with the wild as lovers, as children, as mothers, fathers or siblings. Tokopa, author of the book Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home, writes about the sense of separation and lack of belonging to each other and to the landscape that many people feel today. She talks about the need for restorying our past, which is a way of unhindering ourselves from the spells and stories others have cast on us in order to voice our own truths and our own versions of ourselves. She says we can change the way we perceive the past by reframing and changing the language we use to describe events, circumstances, choices and decisions we faced, in such a way that empowers us and/or gives us more voice today. In light of this, she asks how have we parceled off our wholeness in exchange for acceptance in this industrialized world where we are so separated from nature, and how can the language of kinship with the wild be used to revive those parts so that we can bring our whole selves into being?
Folktales are symbolic, and like spells, can reinforce energy we may carry towards a subject or theme in our lives. Toko-pa says, “Restorying takes place along the living edge, where we are at once a disciple of the great story being born of our lives, but also the speller of the way.” She encourages to watch for new images that can appear in our dreams, and to follow them until a way out is found. She argues that dreaming is a reflection of the earth speaking through us, dreaming is nature naturing through us. Dreams are like fruits, they ripen with an expression of our collective consciousness and collective culture.
In Greek mythology a little owl sits on Athena’s blind side and gives the goddess the ability to see the whole truth. This myth suggests that wisdom includes more than just one perspective: it requires double sightedness, multiple orientations, two different vantage points . .and also invites us to consider that wisdom requires a collaboration between human and more-than-human worlds. It is a recognition that wisdom is more than the sum of its parts. . . that we must befriend the monster, the “other”, and transcend our differences, hear multiple voices and vantage points, to reach deep insight, discernment, clear thinking and understanding.
Folktales from different landscapes and cultures all share a similar mythos, reminding us of our ancient kinship with the wild and our enchantment with the natural world. It is an ancient intertwined root system of buried synchronicities hidden beneath our differences, weaving us all back together again human-to-human, human-and-nature. Through re-story-ing our human relationship with the wild, these folktales bring old world story medicine into our modern lives transforming us too.
Blog Post Photo cover image: Lucas Allmann
References:
Le Guin, Ursula K. (2016). Words are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books. New York: Harper Perennial.
Turner, Toko-Pa (2017). Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home. Her Own Room Press.
Young, Ayana (Host), September 17, 2021, “Woman Stands Shining on Humanity’s Homecoming” No. 251 [Audio Podcast Episode], For the Wild Podcast. https://forthewild.world/listen/woman-stands-shining-pat-mccabe-on-humanitys-homecoming-251