I am a little early as we still have about 36 hours before the moon is totally full. My weekend is chock full of activities so I need to write this today. Let’s start off with the delightful tea of vanilla rooibos & red clover to honor the full womb/moon. It sounds like a strange combination but it quite good and nourishing. I am going to write about the story ‘east of the sun west of the moon’ an enchanting Norwegian tale.
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/index.html
Above is an annotated version, I don’t always agree with the notes but they are interesting none the less. This story is very complex and there are many layers to the tale. As with many of the tales we have been given this tale is about the transition from girlhood to motherhood. We start off with an arranged marriage. Not just any arranged marriage, but a marriage to a beast. This is no longer part of the paradigm of western women, but we can all imagine what it must have been like to be forced into marriage. I can imagine to a young girl any man would be a beast of sorts. This kind of tale like beauty and the beast teach the girl men can change into decent human beings.
For so many years I have heard physiologists say do not try to change a man. Wouldn’t that be nice. But any Heathen woman truly connected to her folk soul knows we have to change our men. If we didn’t we would be living in filthy homes and have Budweiser breakfasts; true beasts. A strong Heathen woman can take a beast man and make him into a civilized man. I have seen it time and time again. Men I thought would never settle down, once the right woman came along they did change and became house bound. Not only did they become house bound they told me they were happy! My Heathen husband has made remarkable transformation for the better. He is a true gentleman, but it took a lot of work and nagging. My husband says to me quit nagging me, and I say back to him if I didn’t love you I wouldn’t nag. A woman who loves her husband wants to see him transform to be the best he can be, and we nag for it.
Our Lass riding on the back of her new beast husband on her way to a faraway place. I have read many a commentary about the sexual nature of this. I am not sure I agree with it, but it could be the moving from girl to sexual girl with the symbolism of riding on the beasts back.
As our Lass settles into the castle it is not a normal place, and she has never seen her husband although lying next to him in bed. I have to think this is a retelling of the Psyche and Cupid tale by the northwomen. Her mother convinces her to look upon her husband.
This is what most modern interpretations take from the story. And most equate this to adultery. I get the feeling though this is a broader spectrum than just adultery. It is anything we refuse to face as women. And all of us do this in our lives. We choose, and I will state this again WE CHOOSE to live in darkness. We may not know we have made the choice, but we have. Adultery is the easiest, because when our partner is unfaithful we know it, but many times choose not to address it. But there are many other things that we ignore instead of deal with. I was 5 months pregnant, I was sitting in my car and I thought to myself wow this is weird my pants still fit me. A week later I was walking around at a county fair and I felt wetness. I thought to myself wow I must be sweating a lot. What I knew, but refused to hold a candle to, my baby was dead. A week later I was forced to deal with the fact. The mother is the one who counsels us to look where we fear to tread. The divine mother who knows it is better to deal with something now rather than wait for it to blow up. She appears to be a nag, but like I said earlier she would not nag if she did not love. The beast is afraid of her, he is afraid of her wisdom and tries to prevent the Lass from talking to her mother. No one can stop the concern from our Disir, they will speak and if we listen we will be rewarded.
Our Lass travels to find her lost love. She is given 3 things by 3 crones. A golden Apple. A golden carding comb. A golden spindle. The 3 things to make a perfect wife. Fertility, Physical Beauty and domestic excellence. From this story I see another transition in the divine feminine moving from being sexual to being wife. This fits in with our model today. We are sexual long before we are wife. The awakening of the sexual part of our being helps in the transition to the domestic part of our beings.
The golden apple. We love our golden apples as they make us think of Idunna. The beautiful goddess. Here is a wassail from North Somerset to the apple tree you can say the next time you pass one or are in an orchard:
Old Apple Tree, we wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear
For the Lord doth know, where we shall be,
Till apples come another year
To bear well and bloom well,
So merry let us be
Let every man take off his hat
And shout to the Old Apple Tree
Old Apple Tree, we wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear
Hats full, caps full, three-bushel bags full
And a little heap under the stairs
I will touch briefly on the troll bride because there is a beautiful story for the duality of bride I will talk about in a later time. Here we shown the duality of the feminine she is both troll bride and beautiful bride. As we all are. We cannot be beautiful bride all of the time, especially when we hold a candle to something we have chosen not to see. Every woman then becomes Troll. Some women cause thousands of dollars of damage, but we all know the feeling of being cheated on and what it does to our personalities.
Through the domestic wonders of our beautiful bride she is able to win the prince and bear children. Our tale is about transformation. Men can transform yes, but usually always with the help of a woman. A woman transforms on her own through examining her own person, examining her shadow her troll. Let us all celebrate the journey to transformation!
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/eastsunwestmoon/index.html
Above is an annotated version, I don’t always agree with the notes but they are interesting none the less. This story is very complex and there are many layers to the tale. As with many of the tales we have been given this tale is about the transition from girlhood to motherhood. We start off with an arranged marriage. Not just any arranged marriage, but a marriage to a beast. This is no longer part of the paradigm of western women, but we can all imagine what it must have been like to be forced into marriage. I can imagine to a young girl any man would be a beast of sorts. This kind of tale like beauty and the beast teach the girl men can change into decent human beings.
For so many years I have heard physiologists say do not try to change a man. Wouldn’t that be nice. But any Heathen woman truly connected to her folk soul knows we have to change our men. If we didn’t we would be living in filthy homes and have Budweiser breakfasts; true beasts. A strong Heathen woman can take a beast man and make him into a civilized man. I have seen it time and time again. Men I thought would never settle down, once the right woman came along they did change and became house bound. Not only did they become house bound they told me they were happy! My Heathen husband has made remarkable transformation for the better. He is a true gentleman, but it took a lot of work and nagging. My husband says to me quit nagging me, and I say back to him if I didn’t love you I wouldn’t nag. A woman who loves her husband wants to see him transform to be the best he can be, and we nag for it.
Our Lass riding on the back of her new beast husband on her way to a faraway place. I have read many a commentary about the sexual nature of this. I am not sure I agree with it, but it could be the moving from girl to sexual girl with the symbolism of riding on the beasts back.
As our Lass settles into the castle it is not a normal place, and she has never seen her husband although lying next to him in bed. I have to think this is a retelling of the Psyche and Cupid tale by the northwomen. Her mother convinces her to look upon her husband.
This is what most modern interpretations take from the story. And most equate this to adultery. I get the feeling though this is a broader spectrum than just adultery. It is anything we refuse to face as women. And all of us do this in our lives. We choose, and I will state this again WE CHOOSE to live in darkness. We may not know we have made the choice, but we have. Adultery is the easiest, because when our partner is unfaithful we know it, but many times choose not to address it. But there are many other things that we ignore instead of deal with. I was 5 months pregnant, I was sitting in my car and I thought to myself wow this is weird my pants still fit me. A week later I was walking around at a county fair and I felt wetness. I thought to myself wow I must be sweating a lot. What I knew, but refused to hold a candle to, my baby was dead. A week later I was forced to deal with the fact. The mother is the one who counsels us to look where we fear to tread. The divine mother who knows it is better to deal with something now rather than wait for it to blow up. She appears to be a nag, but like I said earlier she would not nag if she did not love. The beast is afraid of her, he is afraid of her wisdom and tries to prevent the Lass from talking to her mother. No one can stop the concern from our Disir, they will speak and if we listen we will be rewarded.
Our Lass travels to find her lost love. She is given 3 things by 3 crones. A golden Apple. A golden carding comb. A golden spindle. The 3 things to make a perfect wife. Fertility, Physical Beauty and domestic excellence. From this story I see another transition in the divine feminine moving from being sexual to being wife. This fits in with our model today. We are sexual long before we are wife. The awakening of the sexual part of our being helps in the transition to the domestic part of our beings.
The golden apple. We love our golden apples as they make us think of Idunna. The beautiful goddess. Here is a wassail from North Somerset to the apple tree you can say the next time you pass one or are in an orchard:
Old Apple Tree, we wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear
For the Lord doth know, where we shall be,
Till apples come another year
To bear well and bloom well,
So merry let us be
Let every man take off his hat
And shout to the Old Apple Tree
Old Apple Tree, we wassail thee
And hoping thou wilt bear
Hats full, caps full, three-bushel bags full
And a little heap under the stairs
I will touch briefly on the troll bride because there is a beautiful story for the duality of bride I will talk about in a later time. Here we shown the duality of the feminine she is both troll bride and beautiful bride. As we all are. We cannot be beautiful bride all of the time, especially when we hold a candle to something we have chosen not to see. Every woman then becomes Troll. Some women cause thousands of dollars of damage, but we all know the feeling of being cheated on and what it does to our personalities.
Through the domestic wonders of our beautiful bride she is able to win the prince and bear children. Our tale is about transformation. Men can transform yes, but usually always with the help of a woman. A woman transforms on her own through examining her own person, examining her shadow her troll. Let us all celebrate the journey to transformation!
1 comment:
Wonderful part about calming the savage beast (men). I think it is our nature to see a man not as a completed work, but a work in progress. If left to their own devises they can become creatures of habit, and not always good habits. Some of us just have more work to do than others.
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