Witches as Wise Women Power of Storytelling
As a teller of stories, I now find myself choosing more stories with witches in them. This is related to a fresher understanding that characters like Baba Yaga of Russian fairy tales and the witch in Hansel and Gretel surprisingly point to the culmination of a lifetime of feminine knowledge and wisdom. In many traditions, wise women and witches were heal ers -equally wise and danger- ous-who were burnt at the stake not for their wickedness, but for their power, and for daring to use the gifts of know- ledge and wisdom. Baba Yaga is often represented in images as comic as they are scary, which is why children both yell with laughter and shudder at her description. When we read between the lines we find that she is not evil, but certainly is frightening. The witch in Hansel and Gretel dies, right? Well, she does and doesn't. Most versions of the story - except for some sanitised ones that have little sense of the symbolic - don't say 'she died'. She is pushed into the oven where she no longer threatens the children. Some versions tell us that the ashes or sparks fly up the chimney - may be just going on to the next story... An older French version has the children finding pearls and gems in the oven when the witch burns. They fill their pockets and return home with the "pearls of knowledge and gems of wisdom". Vassilisa, after being scared silly at first, also receives light in the form of fire from Baba Yaga. She uses it to overcome the oppression of her stepmother and stepsisters. Light is certainly a symbol for knowledge and wisdom. Witches and such characters in traditional stories teach us of a reality. They do this by allowing us to distance or 'externalise' that which is actually within us, so that by holding them out before us, we 'see' them better. We stop denying their existence, deal with our fear, befriend them, and then integrate them into ourselves with deeper and more compassionate acceptance and understanding. To give ourselves the gift of unhurried listening to a teaching story is to get to know better our own timeless and vast human nature. We meet aspects f this in stories that are peopled with humans- man, peopled with humans- man, woman or child. prince, pauper or mermaid; with aspects of nature - mountains. rivers, animals, and the great earth; with abstractions or con cepts like evil, good, impermanence, cow ardice, honour, greed and wisdom. Often these are personified, the 'per soni fications' sometimes easil identified with, sometimes not. The not so easily identifiable are often the keys to our trans formation. Their vagueness makes them somehow less easily stamped with hasty 'oh- yes-we-understand-it' labels. In this not this/not that, not here/not there place, we relax into acceptance - even if temporary of meanings other than the ones we assigned and froze before. Storytelling is a gateway through which our fundamental wholeness - beyond separate, black and white 'realities' of good or evil, beautiful or uglycan return to us. For a moment, or for longer if we so choose, we are set free from our anxious existence within everyday, divisive 'consensus reality', and blessed to find ourselves integrated; once again at Home
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are MARGUERITE THEOPHIL views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: MARGUERITE THEOPHIL and Speaking Tree, Times of India
Witches as Wise Women Power of Storytelling
As a teller of stories, I now find myself choosing more stories with witches in them. This is related to a fresher understanding that characters like Baba Yaga of Russian fairy tales and the witch in Hansel and Gretel surprisingly point to the culmination of a lifetime of feminine knowledge and wisdom. In many traditions, wise women and witches were heal ers -equally wise and danger- ous-who were burnt at the stake not for their wickedness, but for their power, and for daring to use the gifts of know- ledge and wisdom. Baba Yaga is often represented in images as comic as they are scary, which is why children both yell with laughter and shudder at her description. When we read between the lines we find that she is not evil, but certainly is frightening. The witch in Hansel and Gretel dies, right? Well, she does and doesn't. Most versions of the story - except for some sanitised ones that have little sense of the symbolic - don't say 'she died'. She is pushed into the oven where she no longer threatens the children. Some versions tell us that the ashes or sparks fly up the chimney - may be just going on to the next story... An older French version has the children finding pearls and gems in the oven when the witch burns. They fill their pockets and return home with the "pearls of knowledge and gems of wisdom". Vassilisa, after being scared silly at first, also receives light in the form of fire from Baba Yaga. She uses it to overcome the oppression of her stepmother and stepsisters. Light is certainly a symbol for knowledge and wisdom. Witches and such characters in traditional stories teach us of a reality. They do this by allowing us to distance or 'externalise' that which is actually within us, so that by holding them out before us, we 'see' them better. We stop denying their existence, deal with our fear, befriend them, and then integrate them into ourselves with deeper and more compassionate acceptance and understanding. To give ourselves the gift of unhurried listening to a teaching story is to get to know better our own timeless and vast human nature. We meet aspects f this in stories that are peopled with humans- man, peopled with humans- man, woman or child. prince, pauper or mermaid; with aspects of nature - mountains. rivers, animals, and the great earth; with abstractions or con cepts like evil, good, impermanence, cow ardice, honour, greed and wisdom. Often these are personified, the 'per soni fications' sometimes easil identified with, sometimes not. The not so easily identifiable are often the keys to our trans formation. Their vagueness makes them somehow less easily stamped with hasty 'oh- yes-we-understand-it' labels. In this not this/not that, not here/not there place, we relax into acceptance - even if temporary of meanings other than the ones we assigned and froze before. Storytelling is a gateway through which our fundamental wholeness - beyond separate, black and white 'realities' of good or evil, beautiful or uglycan return to us. For a moment, or for longer if we so choose, we are set free from our anxious existence within everyday, divisive 'consensus reality', and blessed to find ourselves integrated; once again at Home
DISCLAIMER:
The views expressed in the Article above are MARGUERITE THEOPHIL views and kashmiribhatta.in is not in any way responsible for the opinions expressed in the above article. The article belongs to its respective owner or owners and this site does not claim any right over it.
Courtesy: MARGUERITE THEOPHIL and Speaking Tree, Times of India