The Handless Maiden, Wolves and the Voice of the Earth

I’m still dwelling on the week that was. I’ve never been one to just accept ‘what is’ I always examine and analyse and consider.  I look at the externals and assess the situation then I look at the internals (a much scarier place) and wonder at the stuff that goes on inside.  I notice the symbols and synchronicities and marvel at how it all works.  Often at the end of all this I’m none the wiser, but just sometimes I see a pattern or a message I should be aware of (yes, I’m also an over-thinker at times).

This week has been particularly interesting.  First of all…wolves.  Everywhere.  I turn on the television and there are wolves (not just once….THREE TIMES), I open a book and more wolves, I do a Facebook quiz and get the wolf, someone tells me a story….about wolves (completely random and out of the blue).  Anyway, you get the idea…wolves are all around me.   My Druid Animal Oracle tells me the wolf is about ‘Intuition, Learning and the Shadow’. 

I’ve been having some really strange and vivid dreams too.  The ultimate was when I dreamt that someone had cut off my hands.  It wasn’t gory or frightening, I didn’t dream the actual cutting, just the aftermath and an ‘oh crap, this is going to inconvenient' moment.   It’s been 15 years since I read ‘Women Who Run with the Wolves’ (wolves again) but I’ve revisited that to re-read ‘The Handless Maiden’, a story about bargains and initiation and the shadow and so much more.  My favourite quote from the author’s interpretation of the story is "Though we hate to admit it, over and over again the poorest bargain of our lives is the one we make when we forfeit our deep knowing life for one that is far more frail; when we give up our teeth, our claws, our sense, our scent; when we surrender our wilder natures for a promise of something that seems rich but turns out hollow instead..’ Hmmm, what poor bargain have I made?

I also dreamt that a group of youths looking ‘tribal’ broke into my house – I had to fight them…and I did, quite successfully.  Then I went to their leader and told him it was ok, no harm done, just go away and don’t bother me again.  And they did. 

Make of that what you will.  A Jungian psychologist could have a field day with that lot.

Finally, last night as I was sitting quietly meditating on all of this there was a loud bang then a slow rumbling that built up to a fairly significant vibrating and died down again slowly – it all happened over a period of 10 – 15 seconds but it felt a lot longer.  I knew what it was immediately and after the initial adrenalin rush I relaxed into it.  I knew that Mother Earth was feeling just as restless and unsettled as I was, she was having a stretch and bit of a grumble, finding a new level and letting us know she’d done it.  Now there’s a lesson I need to learn.

P.S. Small earthquake on a local fault – 3.8 magnitude.