Singebis is an ancient Ojibwe winter folktale about a beloved folk hero and wild grebe whose perseverance, courage, resilience, and loyalty in the face of Kabibona'kan, Winter Maker, shows us we can do the same in the face of adversity. This story asks us to reflect on what kinds of Kabibona'kans do we face in our lives today that threaten to divide us from others who might be our friends? This folktale reminds us we all have the capacity to tap into our inner Singebis, find our inner trickster, and remind ourselves that even a little wild bird can outsmart the Winter Maker!
Read MoreYuletide: The Vital and Soulful Wisdom of Bothness
These twelve days between the Winter Solstice and the beginning of the next solar year are referred to as Yule or Yuletide in ancient Medieval Nordic folklore. What gifts does this sacred time belonging neither to the old year nor the new year offer us? How can we harness the transformative power of this bothness? Ancient folktales reveal that the past is not set-in-stone, but is continuously being reinvented, reimagined, and reweaved back into the upcycled tapestry of the present tense. This sacred time gives rise to the beautiful question: how can we cultivate new ways of relating to the past so we can move with wisdom into the future?
Read MoreFeathered Witch, Winter Weaver: How a Timeless Winter Spirit Wove Herself into Rhyme To Survive
Between the covers of a Mother Goose book, children’s rhymes and folktales are woven together with feathers and threads, preserving the magic of an ancient, shape-shifting winter spirit. Mother Goose, with her goose-foot and spinning-wheel roots, is said to echo Perchta, the pre-Christian Alpine goddess of winter, weaving, and liminal spaces. A guardian of thresholds—between old and new years, girlhood and cronehood, village and wilderness—she survives in story, rhyme, and legend, a powerful spirit whose magic endures in children’s tales across the centuries.
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