Whether it is winged deities like the Hindu apsaras; airborne Christian mystics; Islamic Sufis; or the Greek Goddess Athena with her Little Owl, there is a consistent association between birds and a sense of fierce and powerful womanhood and femininity across cultures and geographies. In what small ways can we reclaim our power, rebel like these bird heroines, and embody the energy and spirit of wild birds?
Read MoreThe Jade Rabbit & the Lady on the Moon
An ancient Chinese folktale about the Jade Rabbit on the Moon. . .a story about two estranged lovers, Houyi and Chang-e, and how contradictions are the very nature of truth and how important it is to cultivate a capacity for nuance and duality and master the art of living with opposing truths.
Read MoreThe Linnunraata: Our Kinship with Swans
The Linnunraata, a Finnish folktale, describes the Milky Way as the migratory path of white swans, also known as “Soul Carriers” who bring a human soul to the body at the moment of birth, and carry the soul away at the moment of death towards Lintukoto, the home of the birds. A beautiful story that folds us back into the feathered wings of a universe that mothers us.
Read MoreCrow Challenges Hobomock: A Nipmuc Folktale of Self Transformation
“Crow Challenges Hobomock” is an ancient Nipmuc folktale retold by Larry Spotted Crow Mann in his book Drumming and Dreaming (2016). I love this tale for its timeless wisdom: that real change has nothing to do with outward appearance, but happens from within.
Read MoreRabbits and the Moon Goddess: Traveling the Silk Road
Growing up in Asia, I always believed there was a rabbit on the moon assisting the Goddess who passed the time grinding dried medicinal herbs into an elixir of immortality. However, only recently did I discover that this trio of associations (rabbits, the moon and divine feminine) is an ancient archetype, stretching across a diverse array of cultures, landscapes and centuries by way of the Silk Road.
Read MorePolar Bear Son: in Kinship with the Wild
Polar Bear Son is a deeply moving Inuit folktale with themes of reciprocity and interdependence. An elderly woman who raises an abandoned baby polar bear as her son. When she grows too old to care for herself, he hunts for food for her.
Read MoreBraiding Sweetgrass and the Goddess of Creation
SkyWoman, a Haudenosaunee Creation story about the first woman, reminds us how the wild is inherently full of symbiotic, reciprocal relationships that can inspire us to relate to each other in a similar way if we choose to honor the wisdom of the plants.
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