Announcing: The Handless Maiden
Healing the Wounded Wild, A LIVE Story Council Gathering and Wee Update
“Yet finding our whole healthy bodies again, restoring ourselves to ourselves, seems nearly impossible without first delving into our own inner wild — our soul. Nature is dangerous and frightening and wonderful, but it is not chaotic. It makes sense. It is sensual. To come into communion with our outer and inner nature is to discover the wild. True community can help with that process.”
Kim Antieau
Hello everyone,
First of all I want to say thank you so much to those who are following me here, it means a lot to know I am not writing in the dark. For now The Twining Trail is a free publication, but if you feel inclined to support me with a gift of money, small or large, it’s important that you know this will be deeply helpful, fan my creative fires, and sooth some of the rougher edges of my life. Yeah, you guessed it, living in this world is no simple task, and living on it’s edges even harder. But while there is hardship for many, and devatation for many others, wow, is there every magic and beauty all around. How do we hold these two poles together?
In this newsletter I’d like to announce an upcoming Story Council event on Salt Spring, and hopefully one or two more in vancouver and Duncan (would you like to host?) and also to share a little news!
This July, I have been healing the wounded wild with some epic ‘wood sisters and wood brothers’ this July at two earth skills gatherings, Earth Kin and Firemaker. At these gatherings we return to a ‘village-like’ setting, get really close to the land, camping, circling, singing and dancing around the fire, and learning ancestral and earth skills. Magic, healing, and deep wholing begin to take root. And then, from this immersion in wild belonging, we must leave and find ways to carry some of the medicine, some of the re-villaging, re-skilling, re-membering back to our day-to-day lives. This is how we heal the wounded wild.
This year, I met another Story Teller, Aaron Cantor, and was ignited by his passion, play and collaboration. Also, I noticed the deep need for soft skills of grief tending, story telling, lineage holding and more really begin calling us into action. I told stories too, Coyote Gets Hicthed and The Old Woman Who Weaves the World.
During these first two weeks of July, the story of the Handless Maiden re-emerged, first told by Aaron at Earthkin, then strangely left half-read years ago in my giant copy of Women Who Run with Wolves, just flopped open one day to that folded page, then in the podcast On the Soul’s Terms, where Chris Skidmore discusses it in relationship to yesterday’s 2nd blue, full moon in Capricorn. Read me, read me, work with me, she says.
I remember the first time I heard The Handless Maiden, told by Martin Shaw and the line, “Father, you who are supposed to protect me, and yet you who let the wolf in!” stuck in my gut like a knife. How was that possible that the protective father had let the wolf in!? When a story starts apearing all over, as if following you, you know it’s time to pick it up and tend it. This old tale describes a girl who has her hands cut off and her journey of re-growing them. When I heard Aaron telling it a couple of weeks ago, this time, it was the moment when the hands starting growing back that caught at my sinew: I am there now, still learning how to regrow my hands.
Perhaps we all are, healing the wounded wild, that part of us and our culture that has been severed by a greedy ‘father’ who made a deal with the dark man. Perhaps, perhaps, but like any trail of story stones, we’ll each stumble and kneel at one left just for us. That is for you to discover.
The Handless Maiden: Healing the Wounded Wild
A LIVE Story Council Gathering
Will you join us in the deep sylvan grove of the story woods?
The Handless Maiden has been cast as a woman's initiation story, and indeed it can be held as such, but as the story tellers say, there is a kingdom inside you, a deep, wild forest within, there is a father there too and an innocent daughter, and a dark man of the woods, a child, a pair tree and many others. All of these characters and elements mingle in the underground river of the imaginal world, where we too swim. Don't be mistaken and think that you don't have a dark man, fallen father, or innocent daughter within... you do, and this story is for you.
We are gathering outdoors around the story hearth for a LIVE Story Council with The Handless Maiden. We will participate in setting up the central hearth altar, listen to the story, and engage in story council practices. Seating provided will be rustic benches and the ground, so please bring clothes you'll be comfortable in, a blanket / cushion and your own outdoor seating you require.
At The Castle, 112 Teal Place, Salt Spring Island
Friday Feb 9th 7-10 pm
Sliding Scale Donation' $20-$50 , no one turned away for lack of funds. Please register and save your spot.
Story Council is a way of bringing our troubles as way of a gift to the elderhood of an ancient story and in return receiving some improbable yet wholly palpable council. Join us after dinner for tea and an old tale!!
“In the universe of fairy tales, the Just often find a way to prevail, the Wicked generally receive their comeuppance — but there's more to such tales than a formula of abuse and retribution. The trials these wounded young heroes encounter illustrate the process of transformation: from youth to adulthood, from victim to hero, from a maimed state to wholeness, from passivity to action. Fairy tales are, as Ellen Steiber says, maps through the woods, trails of stones to mark the path, marks carved into trees to let us know that other women and men have been this way before.” Terri Windling
The Handless Maiden, also known as "Silver Hands", "The Armless Maiden," "The Girl With No Hands", is a European fairy tale related to similar stories found in cultures all around the world. It is a story of dismembering and re–membering, of calamity, loss, and healing.
"We feel helpless; we are helpless. We begin wandering, either metaphorically or physically. We look for places, people, or things which can cure us. Many of us set off for wild places, just as Silvia did.” Kim Antieau
About your host: Hi, Belinda White here, I believe the old stories, fairly tales, folklore, and myth hold essential medicine for us if we only court them in just the right ways. Writer, earth artist, nature connection mentor, and story carrier, I have been courting the mythopoetic for the past 4 years. I am thrilled to deepen my commitment to Story Carrying and have been running online and in person story council workshops this year. I have also had some powerful experiences sharing the transformative nature of the old tales at grief rituals, story telling events, and nature connection retreats these past two years. I also offer workshops in sorting our inner, personal stories, and what is dreaming us! See Renewal of Creative path and Story Catching!
I am deeply indebted to the life work and teachings of Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Robert Bly, Sharon Bkackie, Martin Shaw, Danny Deardorf, Michael Meade and many others. My work with stories and grief tending has been modeled by Malidoma and Sobonfu Somé, Francis Weller, Martin Prechtel and Joanna Macy. I have learned much about the Wild Mind, Deep Nature Connection, and the emergent story among all beings from Jon Young and the 8 Shields, Bill Plotkin of Animus Valley, and my time at Wisdom of the Earth, Firemaker, EarthKin and Thriving Roots. There more to thank, poets, art practices, my ancestors and the council of all beings. To all these and those I have failed to mention, thank you.
Join us on the undulating back of story magic?
~ to re-member what we know in our bones ~ to receive the council of the old stories ~ to court the shadows ~ to catch the seeds and sparks of what is dreaming us.
Can't make it to this one?
Stay tuned for two more dates to be announced.
Would you like to join Belinda for more Story Councils online and in person? New series and workshops announced soon!! Follow her on Eventbrite / IG / FB / Substack
warmly and wildly,
Belinda White
“We're meant to come out of sweatlodge, down from the Vision Quest hill, home from the Moon Hut, back from the sacred hunt, bringing with us new knowledge, new dreams, a new status, a new name or role to play....intended not just for the sake of personal growth but in service to the whole tribe or community. Likewise, we're not meant to remain in the circle of enchantment deep in the fairy tale forest -- we're meant to come back out again, bringing our hard-won knowledge and fortune with us...in service to the family (old or new), the realm, the community; to children and the future.” Terri Windling