Since the first dreaming of the world, there have always been stories in which the earth found a body, a voice, and a face through which to enter our human world, dreaming herself into human form. Creaturely heroines are not merely figures who move through the landscape but an expression of the courtship of human imagination and the earth, the way the land births herself into being in the storied world, this marriage-place of worlds. Through the creaturely heroine’s ecstasies and griefs, her shapeshifting and return, we are welcomed into an imaginal realm beyond the limited scope of our human experience, and we begin to see see the world through the wild’s eyes. She is the earth’s emissary, the way the wild enters into our world embodied, drawing us into an emotional kinship felt before it is understood.
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Photo Credit: Thomas Bonometti on Unsplash.
Where the She-Wolf Howls: Awakening the scattered fragments of our wild humanity back into belonging
There is an ancient folktale from the desert Southwest about “a woman who was a wolf who was a woman” also known as “Loba Girl” or Wolf Woman who climbs the canyons, and sifts through the arroyos or dry riverbeds, gathering wolf bones over which she sings, until they spring back to life and run off laughing with the voice of a woman. Inspired by Dr Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ retelling of this story in her book Women Who Run With the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype, this folktale invites us to call back to life those buried and discarded parts of ourselves, so that we can find our true voice again.
Read MoreTern Teachings: Guests that Nest & Give
It is not only humans that tell stories. . . In the voice of bright white feathers and a charming black cap, a story darts its way through gusts of wind off the coast of Massachusetts hatching out of makeshift nests of pebbles and dry grasses. during the months of April and May. It is a seasonal story with themes of reciprocity and interdependence between the arctic tern, a migrating bird, and local coastal cloudberry flowers suggesting that even temporary guest can still contribute to a landscape’s thriving.
Read MoreUshering in the Autumn: Synchronicities that Fall from the Trees
The ripening of local cranberries to crimson, the late-blooming rich yellow goldenrod flowers, and the variety of brown hues of dying leaves ushers in the beginning of autumn. I see a remarkable synchronicity in the colors of this landscape where I live in Massachusetts and the reds and golds that are considered colors of luck, happiness, and joy during a festival of my own heritage: the Mid-Autumn festival which is celebrated in Vietnam (known as Tết Trung Thu) on this full moon in September. Streets are lined with red and gold lanterns, and the rich brown color of traditional mooncakes eaten on this special day just adds to the magical similarity!
Read MoreThe Medial Thread: Between The Cauldron and the Crow
In a quiet cave beyond time, an Old Woman weaves the fabric of the world, 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 reminds us creation and destruction are the warp and weft of life, and that even broken threads may be rewoven into meaning.
Read MoreThe Reindeer Goddess Who Returns The Sun: A folktale of Reindeer, the Sacred Feminine & the Rhythms of the Wild
Reflecting on the gift of a folktale that draws loosely from several stories from Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia, and indigenous Sami folklore: the Goddess of the Sun is pulled by a herd of caribou that transforms into a bear, as she makes her way across the horizon and brightens the sky.
Read MoreThe Selkie Myth and the Journey Home: Reclaiming your wild self through ancient story
The folktale of the Selkie combines the bitter and the sweet - a hauntingly relevant message for modern souls. To journey through this myth is to witness the whole of us: the one who leaves; the one who betrays herself for safety, love and belonging; and the one who remembers and returns. Who among us sees the whole — the wild, the wounded, and the wonder within? The quiet work of soul-tending and wild becoming is rarely honored in a world that fears what it cannot tame - yet it is the truest kind of magic.
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