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Wildness and the handless maiden · Mooney's Mythic Podcast

0:01
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Mooney's Mythic Podcast.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: Hello and hello.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: This Mooney's Mythic Podcast is sponsored by Wildness.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: All that is untamed,
0:13
SPEAKER_00: that is unbridled,
0:15
SPEAKER_00: all that is fecund and musk,
0:17
SPEAKER_00: all that is moss and moistness,
0:20
SPEAKER_00: all that is season and change and transformation and unfurling and blooming and
0:28
SPEAKER_00: flowing and torrent and bliss.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: welcome welcome aboard hey oh i'm so glad to be here i'm just in the kitchen with
0:39
SPEAKER_00: you um that sound is onions frying which is at some points i'm gonna have to turn
0:44
SPEAKER_00: those off um but what a nice sound hey what a nice feeling what a
0:49
SPEAKER_00: great thing to be to be here.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: I am so grateful to be here.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's been a long time since I've sat with you all and I've got to know
0:58
SPEAKER_00: some of you a little bit better since I last sat here and it's just always a
1:03
SPEAKER_00: pleasure to sit around this table,
1:06
SPEAKER_00: this round table or to sit by my fire or wherever I am and to,
1:13
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
1:13
SPEAKER_00: just kind of pour my
1:15
SPEAKER_00: liminal um self out in the world to you in the um in the intention that it is soul
1:24
SPEAKER_00: nurture for you all so here i am and um if uh if this is your first podcast you
1:33
SPEAKER_00: might want to um skip back and listen to a few more because i'm going to talk about
1:38
SPEAKER_00: a little bit about the retreat that i've just um
1:42
SPEAKER_00: finished and some other and some other stuff you might want to just go a couple of
1:46
SPEAKER_00: episodes back or if you dare to go back to the beginning you can see how much
1:51
SPEAKER_00: smoother the experience is now but uh if you just want to hang in there and stay
1:58
SPEAKER_00: with us then you're really bloody welcome i promise you too
2:03
SPEAKER_00: So,
2:04
SPEAKER_00: yeah,
2:04
SPEAKER_00: thanks for everyone who's got in touch with me this week and said that they've been
2:08
SPEAKER_00: listening to the podcast,
2:10
SPEAKER_00: that they've been enjoying the podcast.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: And thanks for people who make suggestions and,
2:16
SPEAKER_00: you know,
2:16
SPEAKER_00: tell me what they like and don't like,
2:18
SPEAKER_00: because that's really it's really good to just hear.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: It's engagement.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: It's a conversation.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And I'm.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: Just just absolutely gladdened and rich hearted to know that you're getting something out of it.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: So somebody has requested a kind of sleep story.
2:41
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to record some of those over the winter, some long sleep stories where you can just listen.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: There'll be no surprises.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: You'll just be listening to my voice.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: I think I thought I'd call them shamanic sleep stories so that I can kind of take you into a deep state.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: And then we can have different themes where we're nourishing our imaginal selves,
3:07
SPEAKER_00: our dreaming selves in different ways.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: And thanks to Chris,
3:12
SPEAKER_00: who said how much he enjoyed listening to the shamanic drum journey and that she'd
3:17
SPEAKER_00: listened to it a few times.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And that's emboldened me to I think the next recording I do will be another drum
3:23
SPEAKER_00: journey or another kind of visualisation based on the story that I'm going to tell today.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: But let's just go back because I have just had the most amazing time on a retreat.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: I mean, why are they called retreats?
3:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
3:38
SPEAKER_00: They should be called advances, I think.
3:40
SPEAKER_00: But I've been doing a mythic wildness, wilderness retreat.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: retreat a mystery school with some incredible women and that's really what I wanted
3:51
SPEAKER_00: to just say is wow these women they came and they unpacked themselves and they went
3:59
SPEAKER_00: after their power and their beauty and their juiciness and they supported each
4:05
SPEAKER_00: other it was phenomenal
4:08
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it is a mystery school.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: It is a deep secret,
4:15
SPEAKER_00: the heart of these retreats,
4:16
SPEAKER_00: and that's what keeps them safe so that we can explore uncharted territory and we
4:22
SPEAKER_00: know that it's always going to be safe.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not going to talk about anything that we did,
4:29
SPEAKER_00: that the sisters,
4:30
SPEAKER_00: the women,
4:31
SPEAKER_00: did or expressed on that course,
4:33
SPEAKER_00: except to say that we began by...
4:38
SPEAKER_00: I asked a question just to share something that they'd never told anyone before.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: And it opened the door, just that question, just opened the door to a depth and a trust and a clarity.
4:52
SPEAKER_00: It was very, very beautiful.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: And then we went about creating initiations,
4:58
SPEAKER_00: rites of passage,
4:59
SPEAKER_00: rituals,
5:00
SPEAKER_00: witnessing for the places in us that we wanted to really take care of in a myriad
5:04
SPEAKER_00: of different ways.
5:05
SPEAKER_00: And we all supported each other to do that.
5:10
SPEAKER_00: And we did this through the myth of the Handless Maiden because I do believe that
5:17
SPEAKER_00: some of these myths and stories,
5:19
SPEAKER_00: they contain,
5:20
SPEAKER_00: well,
5:20
SPEAKER_00: almost all of them,
5:22
SPEAKER_00: they contain blueprints for this kind of thing,
5:26
SPEAKER_00: for ritual,
5:28
SPEAKER_00: for self-knowledge,
5:29
SPEAKER_00: for blossoming,
5:30
SPEAKER_00: for deep inner journeying,
5:32
SPEAKER_00: for all of those things.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: So we did it through the window of the
5:38
SPEAKER_00: the lens of the handless maiden.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to tell you the story of the handless maiden now.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: But before I do that, just for a sense of completion, I've got to finish this carrot.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Just a little bit to go.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: And I'm going to just turn off the onions as delightful as the sound effect is.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: I'm really vibing on the sound effect, but the smell of burnt onions is going to soon come wafting up.
6:03
SPEAKER_00: So my voice is going to get a bit far away.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: I was thinking for winter I would do a kind of part meditation,
6:20
SPEAKER_00: part kind of Nigella recipes of a real kind of sensual treat,
6:26
SPEAKER_00: part Victorian erotica.
6:29
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's what I'm getting.
6:31
SPEAKER_00: Getting my juices going with some really gorgeous...
6:36
SPEAKER_00: winter podcast that we can enjoy let's have a sublime winter a really truly deep
6:44
SPEAKER_00: and rich and warming one so i don't know if you know the story of the handless
6:56
SPEAKER_00: maiden but it starts like this that there was a man who was a miller
7:03
SPEAKER_00: And the miller had fallen on hard times.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean,
7:07
SPEAKER_00: just think about the places that you know,
7:09
SPEAKER_00: the mills that you know that are standing empty or have been converted.
7:13
SPEAKER_00: There was a time when the mills throve,
7:18
SPEAKER_00: where the miller was a very rich man indeed,
7:21
SPEAKER_00: and he didn't give a thought to the fact that one day
7:25
SPEAKER_00: He might be walking into the woods with his axe just to get some firewood, to chop his own firewood.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: And he had thought long ago that he was too good for that.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: But he left his wife and his daughter behind and he went into the woods.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And he had this real charcoal heart, resentment and sourness and desperation all around him.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: resentment, sourness, desperation, all around him.
8:06
SPEAKER_00: It was him that sniffed it.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And he was there immediately.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: And he said to the man, oh, you don't want to be doing that.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to be hurting your back with all that swinging and working.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Miller looked at him resentfully.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: He hated being seen and doing these menial tasks.
8:25
SPEAKER_00: He said, you don't know that.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll tell you what.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: He said, I'll tell you what.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Let's do a little bit of magic, a little bit of magical exchange.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: He said, I will give you all the riches that you've ever desired.
8:37
SPEAKER_00: And you give me what's behind the milk.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And the miller thought, well, this guy's obviously an idiot and a charlatan.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: But what is behind the mill but the old blooming apple tree?
8:49
SPEAKER_00: And it's just like apples, apples, apples.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm sick of bloody apples.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: I want a banana or an orange or something, something exotic.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't want an apple.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So he looked at the man, he called his bluff and he said, all right then.
9:08
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as the miller nodded,
9:14
SPEAKER_00: The glee in the other man's eyes was unmistakable.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And he did think for a moment then that he might have made the wrong choice.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: But the man just rubbed his hands together and said, I'll be back in three years.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Three years and I'll come back and I'll take what's mine.
9:33
SPEAKER_00: And as soon as he said that, he disappeared.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And the miller was almost about to marvel about what had happened to him,
9:42
SPEAKER_00: but he didn't have time because in that moment,
9:46
SPEAKER_00: his whole body seemed to change,
9:49
SPEAKER_00: seemed to plump and primp.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: The clothes on his back, they seemed to become from threadbare to rich and brocaded.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: The
9:58
SPEAKER_00: shoes that he was feeling the holes in at the bottom the soles they became thick
10:03
SPEAKER_00: and swayed and there were rings on his hands and a great gold chain around his neck
10:11
SPEAKER_00: and he didn't have time to marvel over any of this because then his wife comes
10:17
SPEAKER_00: flurrying out of the forest and running towards him what have you done what have
10:20
SPEAKER_00: you done what have you done and as she's running towards him everything about her
10:24
SPEAKER_00: is changing all this gold is getting
10:27
SPEAKER_00: Pinned into her hair and rings and necklaces and earrings and everything she's
10:33
SPEAKER_00: wearing suddenly becomes embroidered and brocaded and wealth,
10:37
SPEAKER_00: wealth,
10:38
SPEAKER_00: wealth dripping,
10:39
SPEAKER_00: dripping,
10:39
SPEAKER_00: dripping from the both of them.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: And he says, relax, relax.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: I just did a deal with this guy and he said that he would give me great riches if
10:53
SPEAKER_00: only I give him what's behind the mill.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And what's behind the mill?
10:57
SPEAKER_00: Except for that old apple tree.
10:59
SPEAKER_00: And come on, you know how sick of apples I get.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, the woman was grey when she heard this.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: She said...
11:11
SPEAKER_00: What's behind the mill, my dear, is not that apple tree but our daughter sweeping the yard.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: What's behind the mill is not that apple tree but it's our daughter sweeping the yard.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: The miller heard the words but they swam and swam and swam in his head.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: He just couldn't take them in.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: They were landing like booming, great depth charges by the time he arrived.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: But when he saw his daughter looking so beautiful and so innocent and so trusting at him,
12:05
SPEAKER_00: He felt sicker and iller and drier than he'd ever felt.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: And they told her the bargain that they'd made with her life,
12:22
SPEAKER_00: that they had compromised her thrival,
12:28
SPEAKER_00: her beating heart,
12:30
SPEAKER_00: her riches,
12:37
SPEAKER_00: And they barely spoke those next three years.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: But the miller and the miller's wife,
12:46
SPEAKER_00: they adored that girl more than they thought it would ever possible.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: And they watched her every movement and she flourished.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: And then the day came.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: The devil arrived.
13:06
SPEAKER_00: I've come to take what's mine, he said.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: Give it to me now.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And the girl,
13:13
SPEAKER_00: she had bathed herself that morning and she had dressed herself in white and she
13:18
SPEAKER_00: came out and she made a circle out of chalk all around her and she stood in the circle.
13:25
SPEAKER_00: And when the devil went to grab her, he was thrown back.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: And again he tried, but he was thrown back.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he said, she's too clean.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: She's so clean.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: Don't let her wash and I shall come back and claim what is mine.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: So for the next month she didn't wash.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: She became stained, blackened.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: She became grubby and knotted.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: She became dirty, unclean.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: And then he came back.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: But when she saw him, she started to cry.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: tears pouring out of her,
14:09
SPEAKER_00: tears from her pure heart,
14:11
SPEAKER_00: tears from her deep places,
14:14
SPEAKER_00: tears from a cave deep,
14:17
SPEAKER_00: deep down inside of herself.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: She cried and she cried and she cried and she cried and she cried.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: And she wiped her eyes and the tears poured and poured and poured over her hands.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: disgusting said the devil chop off her hands chop off her hands immediately and she
14:44
SPEAKER_00: implored she reached her hands out to him he said chop them off chop them off chop
14:49
SPEAKER_00: them off I can't do that said the miller I can't chop off the hands of my own
14:55
SPEAKER_00: daughter you better do it said the devil or you will die and your wife will die and
15:00
SPEAKER_00: everything around here will be razed to the ground you better do it and do it now
15:06
SPEAKER_00: so fearful for his life, the miller sharpened his axe.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: He went towards his daughter and he chopped the hands of his daughter clean off.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: But still she cried and then there was blood and then there were tears and what greater magic is that?
15:33
SPEAKER_00: The devil could not come close.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: So off he went, grumping, scratching and grouching.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: And there she was, the handless maiden.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: And they bound her with white gauze.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: And they prayed with her and they said, Oh, daughter, daughter, we'll give you everything you need.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: You're not going to want that everything, anything.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: We'll feed you.
15:58
SPEAKER_00: We'll clothe you.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: We'll entertain you.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: You'll be all right.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: We promise you.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: You won't even notice you haven't got hands.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: But the girl shook her head.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And without hands, she walked out.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: and thus ended her life as she knew it.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: And she walked out into the woods and she wasn't afraid because she was a person of nature.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And she walked out into the woods and the relief of the breeze on her skin was something else.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: And the noise out there were the birds and the squirrels, the deer and the badger, the watching fox.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: She didn't feel lonely.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Not lonely at all.
16:51
SPEAKER_00: But after some days and some nights, she became hungry.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: So very, very hungry.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: She saw a pear tree.
17:03
SPEAKER_00: It was an orchard,
17:04
SPEAKER_00: but there was a moat between her and the pear trees and she longed,
17:09
SPEAKER_00: she longed for one of those pears.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And she stood by the moat.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: She may even have decided she was going to step in when a spirit in white came and...
17:24
SPEAKER_00: moved the whole moat,
17:25
SPEAKER_00: every single bit of water to the side so that the maiden could walk across the moat.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And she walked across the moat and she stood under that pear tree.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: Beautiful, rich, ripe pears.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Ancient pears, ancestor pears, sweet pears, juicy pears.
17:49
SPEAKER_00: And the branches of the tree
17:52
SPEAKER_00: They seemed to bend, bend, bend until one of those pairs was touching her lips and she ate.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And it was such succour,
18:04
SPEAKER_00: it was such delight,
18:06
SPEAKER_00: it was such deep,
18:07
SPEAKER_00: deep nourishment that she went across the moat again and she lay down in the woods
18:15
SPEAKER_00: and she rested there for the rest of the day.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Now the orchard belonged to a king and he knew straight away that one of his pears was missing.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: He knew that someone had been in his orchard.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: It all felt different.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: It felt weird.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: It felt exciting.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: So he summoned his gardener and he summoned his magician and he said,
18:42
SPEAKER_00: we need to find out what's been going on in my orchard at night.
18:48
SPEAKER_00: So the next night they waited.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: They waited all night and in the middle of the night they saw a great ethereal
18:57
SPEAKER_00: spirit cloud come down and they saw the moat
19:03
SPEAKER_00: as if it were being sucked to the side.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: And then they saw her,
19:08
SPEAKER_00: radiant,
19:09
SPEAKER_00: trusting being with no hands,
19:12
SPEAKER_00: stepping,
19:12
SPEAKER_00: stepping,
19:13
SPEAKER_00: stepping across the drained moat.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: And they were transfixed,
19:18
SPEAKER_00: but nothing prepared them for what they saw next because she stood under that tree
19:23
SPEAKER_00: with her mouth open and the pear tree bent its branch to her lips and she ate.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: Find out more about her, the king said, and the gardener and the magician.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: They circled and they whispered and they asked.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: And they found out that she was human,
19:48
SPEAKER_00: that she was no elestial being,
19:51
SPEAKER_00: but that she was filled with the radiant wonder of one who trusted and believed she
19:59
SPEAKER_00: would be fed.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: And the king was so enthralled by her that he courted her and he loved her.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And eventually after much connection and delight, they did get married.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: And the king, he had a pair of silver hands made for her and she wore them.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: But then
20:28
SPEAKER_00: Because the women, they weren't pouring their blood on the land.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: Because the land wasn't getting what it needed, there was a war.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: And the king was sent away to that war.
20:44
SPEAKER_00: He had to rule his people.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: He had to show his bravery.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: So he called his mother and he said, please look after her.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: I love her with all my heart.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Please look after this beautiful woman of mine.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: And he thought that she might be with child, but they weren't sure.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: And he went away, and indeed she was, and she bloomed and she grew in that pregnancy.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: It was really something else to see.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: It really was.
21:13
SPEAKER_00: And then in the doorway of her birth,
21:16
SPEAKER_00: she gave birth to the most gorgeous,
21:22
SPEAKER_00: exciting,
21:23
SPEAKER_00: deep,
21:25
SPEAKER_00: beautiful little boy.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: And the queen,
21:32
SPEAKER_00: as she was then,
21:33
SPEAKER_00: the queen's mother,
21:35
SPEAKER_00: she sent a note to the king to let him know that his baby boy had been born safe
21:40
SPEAKER_00: and well and that the queen was well too.
21:46
SPEAKER_00: But the devil smelt it.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: And he didn't like what he smelt at all.
21:52
SPEAKER_00: He smelt happiness.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: He smelt contentment.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: He smelt some kind of love that he'd never felt.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: And he wanted to destroy it.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: So he muddled and messed and messed and muddled with all of the messages that went back and forth.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Kill the baby.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: Kill the queen.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: Kill the baby.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Kill the queen.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: And the king's mother,
22:22
SPEAKER_00: she was feared by these messages and she knew that war could curdle a man's heart.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: And she said to the woman, you must go.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Tie the babe to you and go.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: It's not safe for you here anymore.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And the maiden was used to leaving what she'd come to accept as home.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: So once more she walked and walked and walked.
22:48
SPEAKER_00: And it was the people of the woods that saw her.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: They said, we know who you are and we'll protect you.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: And so she lived with them.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: And there are many stories about how her child grew so bonny and adventurous in
23:06
SPEAKER_00: that time and more stories too about how she regrew her hands.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: Some say that she would go out into a garden at night and she would press her
23:17
SPEAKER_00: stumps into the earth,
23:19
SPEAKER_00: that she would let the cool earth just blow.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: She would let the cool earth touch her stumps and do their healing magic.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Some say that her babe fell down the sacred well and it was the same spirit that
23:40
SPEAKER_00: had drained the moat that said,
23:41
SPEAKER_00: reach.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I can't, I haven't got any hands.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: And the spirit said, reach.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: And she said, I can't, I haven't got any hands.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: And the spirit said, reach.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: And so she reached and as she reached to grab, to grasp, to save what she loved,
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Her hands began to grow back.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Or did they grow back as she planted them deep in the earth?
24:02
SPEAKER_00: Or did they grow back as she stretched them up to the sunlight?
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Or did they grow back as she put them across her heart?
24:13
SPEAKER_00: Or around her child?
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Or in the longing to press them together in the shape of prayer?
24:22
SPEAKER_00: But grow back they did.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: And whilst they were growing back, so the king returned.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: And when the king returned, the king's mother was so upset and distraught with him.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: She said, these messages, what were you thinking?
24:39
SPEAKER_00: Your brain must have been addled.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: What?
24:41
SPEAKER_00: And he looked at them and he was despairing.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, what?
24:44
SPEAKER_00: This wasn't me.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: These are the messages.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: I sent messages.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: I love her with all my.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, she's gone.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: She's gone.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And so began the king's journey.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: And the king, he swore that he would not eat and he would not sleep until he found her.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: And so he searched.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: He searched for the feminine.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: He searched for the maiden.
25:13
SPEAKER_00: He searched for the yin.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: He searched for the deep, deep, deep sacred feminine.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: He searched.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: He searched for seven years.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: And on his knees he entered the inn of the woods people.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: And they recognised him at once and they bade him to sit on the sofa and they gave
25:39
SPEAKER_00: him a draught of beer and they lay him down and he fell asleep.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: And as he fell asleep they put a call over him, a thin white sheet of silk over his face.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: And when she opened the door and the soft breeze billowed,
25:58
SPEAKER_00: that thin white silk sheet ruffled to the floor.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: And she stood there and she said, I am your woman.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: He didn't believe her and she brought the son who was now Bonnie, nearly eight.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: But he couldn't believe her because she had these hands, they were fair and they were strong and
26:24
SPEAKER_00: And so she called for one of the woods people to bring a box and she brought the box.
26:31
SPEAKER_00: And inside the box were her silver hands that he had had made and then he believed and they rejoiced.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: He believed and they rejoiced.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: And to end the spell, we could say that they all lived happily ever after.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Such a precious story.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: For me, I just feel like you could take it anywhere.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: You could allow it to work in the depths of the view in so many different places
27:17
SPEAKER_00: and so many different ways.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let's just take a little slice of it.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: A little bit of it.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: So the maiden.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: She's there, she's sweeping behind the yard, back forth, back forth, back forth.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think that's what Clarissa Pinkola-Rusty says in Women Who Run With the Wolves.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: And when I worked with her in Colorado, she particularly worked on this story.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: It's like we're just doing things on autopilot.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: She's just doing things on autopilot.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: And then something comes in to disrupt that, to rupture that totally.
27:59
SPEAKER_00: And it looks like...
28:01
SPEAKER_00: chaos or horror but actually it's an initiation which is going to change our lives
28:08
SPEAKER_00: and make us whole people so something is interrupted and cut away her hands are cut
28:13
SPEAKER_00: off and the devil can't get close and she doesn't talk about this in the in the
28:18
SPEAKER_00: book but i think that the devil can't get close because of the blood you know the
28:23
SPEAKER_00: blood so magical women's blood our blood
28:30
SPEAKER_00: can't get close.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Blood and the tears.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: And then she has to decide that moment.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: Is she going to stay coseted, protected by her family?
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Or is she going to go and really meet herself and meet the world and meet nature?
28:53
SPEAKER_00: And that's what she does.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Mmm.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: And then she finds herself in a place where it all feels very good.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: She gets these silver hands made for her, but they're still kind of robotic hands.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: They're still really someone else's hands.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: So is her situation really changed or not?
29:22
SPEAKER_00: And it's only when she is
29:29
SPEAKER_00: come through another initiation of birth giving birth to something it doesn't have
29:35
SPEAKER_00: to be a child but birthing something of oneself and then back out again into the
29:42
SPEAKER_00: wilderness of the soul she finds herself in a different way and so where are they
29:53
SPEAKER_00: the cut off places in us and how can we
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Mend them.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: How can we bring them back to life?
30:06
SPEAKER_00: I think we have to notice them first of all.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: And that's what happens at the beginning when she's just sweeping, sweeping, sweeping.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: She doesn't know that she's like totally kind of blank and not really incarnated into herself.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: But I think you have to notice first the places that are...
30:30
SPEAKER_00: are not yet awakened, so that you can awaken them in different ways.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: And the stories are a great way of just opening that door to feeling the depth of those things.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: So I'm going to leave it there of talking about the Handless Maiden story and I'll
30:52
SPEAKER_00: do a longer drum journey around the story and I might also do another kind of talk
31:01
SPEAKER_00: about it.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: It's such a big story and it's one of my favourites.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so thanks for listening.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: really you're in my kitchen one and all I've got this grand candelabra that my
31:18
SPEAKER_00: sister left here I've got a tiny table and I've got four great taper candles lit to
31:26
SPEAKER_00: remind me of the company that you all are so thanks for being here I'm doing an
31:33
SPEAKER_00: online winter gathering it's a fairy tale sessions that's what I'm calling it so we
31:39
SPEAKER_00: will
31:41
SPEAKER_00: use the fairy tales that we heard,
31:45
SPEAKER_00: read,
31:45
SPEAKER_00: listened to,
31:46
SPEAKER_00: knew,
31:47
SPEAKER_00: watched when we were little and we will use them as ways of awakening,
31:54
SPEAKER_00: exciting,
31:55
SPEAKER_00: thrilling,
31:56
SPEAKER_00: emerging,
31:57
SPEAKER_00: all different places within us.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: So if you fancy that,
32:01
SPEAKER_00: give me a note,
32:02
SPEAKER_00: send me a note on Substack and I'll send you the information for that.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: I'd love to have you on board.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: And I have got a few spaces left.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: I think I've got four spaces left.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: and if you think oh i'm not quite ready to work with sarah in that way but i do
32:19
SPEAKER_00: really i like what she does and i really want to support what she does then have a
32:23
SPEAKER_00: think about supporting me on patreon mooney's mythic podcast because i love doing
32:28
SPEAKER_00: these podcasts i love being um here for you in this way and um yeah if you think
32:35
SPEAKER_00: i'd buy her a pint of guinness or a decaf when i saw her once a month
32:41
SPEAKER_00: then think about supporting that.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: And also just know that your listening is enough, really.
32:48
SPEAKER_00: It is enough.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: You are enough.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: In all ways, you're enough.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: So remember and enjoy that.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Until next week, lots of love.