The Wore The Forest: Moss, Magic and the Making of a Sovereign Self

Mossy Coat is an Old English fairytale about the ingenuity and creativity of a wild forager and weaver who sews her daughter a coat of wild mosses so she can disguise herself, escape poverty, avoid an unwanted marriage and determine her own destiny. It is how even a small diminutive plant like moss can be protective, nurturing, empowering and magical, and how a coat of moss gives the heroine a sense of wildness, freedom, and sovereignty over her own life. An enduring folktale that lives on like wild moss, wielding its quiet power. . .

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Mother Goose: A Folktale of Feathers and Snow

The first flakes of snow usher in the beginning of winter, and according to old Germanic folklore, they are the feathers from the featherbeds of Old Mother Goose. According to the Brothers Grimm, she may have been a goose herself, or shapeshifting between an elderly woman and a snow goose, because in some versions of the story she has a one large foot, like that of a goose, perhaps a splayed foot from pressing the treadle of her spinning wheel. Due to her shapeshifting nature between a white goose and an elderly woman, she represents both maiden and crone, as well as the transition between life and death, lightness and darkness, representing this transitional time of the year: the Winter Solstice.

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Makers of Dreams: Gifting us Dreams on Wings

The Makers of Dreams is an ancient folktale from the Isle of Skye revealing the intimate relationship between dreams, wild birds and the seasonal changes in the landscape that happen at this time of year in the northern hemisphere. As the air cools, creatures of the earth settle into hibernation, and the nights become longer beckoning us to also sleep longer, and dream. Many species of birds begin migrating, and the journey between this world and the dream world that the story alludes to mimics the way the birds in the “real” outer world are literally journeying between landscapes and worlds as well.

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The Medial Thread: Between The Cauldron and the Crow

In a quiet cave beyond time, an Old Woman weaves the world with fibers dyed from root and blossom, only to have it unraveled again by Trickster Crow. Yet she does not despair. She gathers the threads and begins anew, each tapestry carrying a different pattern, a new possibility. This enduring White Mountain Apache folktale echoes in the folklore of many landscapes around the world reminding us that creation and destruction are not enemies, but dance partners in the rhythm of renewal. In a world obsessed with permanence, at its heart the story holds paradox, persistence, and the sacred art of starting again.

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