Transformation – The Goddess Rhiannon Wild Wisdom Story
She is of the 'Other World' and although now seen just as a fairy tale character was once known as Great Queen’. Now we see nature weaving in with this story...
What grief must one endure when one’s child has been taken away, to be framed for its death and endure years of shame, humiliation and blame for a sin that is not yours?
About these wild wisdom soul stories.
You take this as you wish as a mythic exploration, spiritual gift, positive psychological programming whatever … but I offer it to you in the hope that it will serve you some good purpose.
The tree teachings, #forestbathing #meditations and wild wisdom soul stories are not pre-planned, I don’t have the year ahead mapped out with neat little diagrams and to do lists and pre-prepared old last years’ materials. No ... these are the fresh green shoots of inspirations sent forth from the trees. I don’t care what your belief system is … in times of mass extinction, and #climatechange, my conviction is that if we connect personally with trees and nature this can only serve both us and the #earth well … I hope you agree. These stories are ancient but they are as relevant now as they ever were. They come alive when we interact with them. They are the history and archaeology of nature, culture, of our souls and so much more. But they are not dead relics they are living right now.
Each being and story featured each week is of course a brief glimpse. If you feel drawn to a particular one you could study it in greater depth and pay homage to the culture within which it arose.There in the fortified castle of the king, his child is abducted and who does he blame? Not himself, not his retinue, but his own queen, the mother of his child. The one who has birthed the future of his kingdom. And why? Because he believed in the vicious tongues of others, not in his own heart.
A baby, a part of ourselves, given birth to is abducted and hidden from the world. Us, as the mother are duly accused, blamed, shamed and duly our fall from grace is complete. In the kings’ domain it is the creative loving heart made visible that is cruelly abducted and its originator loaded with the sins of the kingdom. More pointedly still is the fact that having given birth the mother is at her most vulnerable. Where the king should see vulnerability, he sees weakness and that weakness is coldly exploited.
The Trees
We saw the trees, the mouse and the marchers in Tuesdays’ tree teaching surviving in the concrete empire finding a way to survive. Not honoured, not seen, not treated with respect and often persecuted. Are you seeing the parallels?
By now if you have read the Trans-formation tree teaching, the meaning will not be lost on you of the story that has arrived.
So, the questions arise: what kind of society attacks its most vulnerable? What kind of society attacks those of the ‘other world’, those who are different to the mainstream? What kind of society attacks the creative heart and source of all things?
You may well ask.
Here we are, in a world experiencing plague and destruction on an epic, mythic scale and still we, as humans, are attacking the very thing that sustains us, that creative heart of all things, Nature. This sickness isn’t the current pandemic (and yes, there will be more), this sickness is our attitude to Nature, to the wild creative beating heart of the world. It manifests itself in prioritising human need as more important than the swallows need, the trees need, the bees need. This sickness tells us we have a right to destroy what we like with impunity because, like the King, we believe the vicious tongue of greed. We believe that listening to nature, to the something other, will topple our kingdom.
These stories may be hundreds, if not many thousands of years old, but they are as acutely relevant today as they were when they originated.
The Power of Story
Stories have power. Or why else would social media giants Facebook and Instagram be discriminating against the LGBTQ community, Trans community and the Eco Activist Community? Why have these platforms been taken over by Trump and the like? If words and stories have no power then why is it that these alternative story tellers are persecuted?
Did you know that those communities on these platforms are routinely silenced? Personal accounts shadow banned or closed down altogether, events taken down and the algorithms designed to promote certain political groups? How do I know this? You try sharing a website multiple times and see what happens to your personal interactions. You try sharing a march or activist account and see how many interactions you get. The account for the trans march was shadow banned by Instagram meaning only people who already knew about it could see its posts and interact with it. The event made on Facebook for the Manchester trans event was banned, only the people who had signed up to it could see it. So, I could see it, but when I shared it none of my friends saw it because it had been hidden. Don’t assume “oh well, it’s just trans groups”, it’s lots of communities this is happening to and the problem is getting worse. On the one hand Facebook like my group on its platform for the ‘pretty pictures’ but how many people see my posts or campaigns? Not nearly as many and why? Because Facebook algorithms are weighted against such activism. (One of my members suggested MeWe so I have set up a group on there if you're interested. As I understand it, it has very storing privacy and non censorship.)
I have always had a healthy disrespect for politicians from all sides. My interest is in compassion and common human decency. For me, protecting and planting trees is not political, nor is protecting people. These principles are basic survival. If we do not protect nature, and humans as a part of it, then we will continue to unravel the world.
Nature has no voice. This is a symptom of what is wrong with our society. First, it is the forests, then the indigenous tribes, then other communities too.
Nature, like Rhiannon, has been stripped of her baby, devalued, shamed and treated as a work-horse. How many communities of people have we also seen treated like this? And why? Because we are ALL a part of nature.
The Other World
Rhiannon is from the ‘other world’. The courtiers look at her and whisper and while she is queen they are polite, but they are merely waiting their chance to take her down. They will never accept her as queen and so they plot. It doesn’t take much to topple faith in her. It doesn’t matter she has been a faithful loving queen, her love does not matter. The king listens to the gossips and sees what he wants to see…. Because she is of the ‘Other World’.
Trans people are ‘something other’ too and just like Rhiannon they are seen as a danger to the status quo and so people plot their downfall. Did you know there are as many intersex people (born with both male & female organs) as there are redheads? Society wants things in black and white and yet things are rarely black and white. Life is not like that, yet still greed and fear seek to make it so. They seek to divide where there is no division and of course in dividing they conquer.
Where is the compassion for Rhiannon? It has disappeared with the label, “something other”… for which you could read Trans, Black, Gay, Woman, Disabled, eco activist, nature lover, and a whole host of other labels. This is the power of words abused. The label creates a box to lock people into and once locked in they become worth less than human greed. How many more labels can you think of? Remember this is the tip of the iceberg it could be you next. A tree might seem far less than human, but when we stand silent and let them be destroyed in their thousands the loss of that forest voice starts a dominoes fall that goes on and on.
Here is another thought for you … what of the baby? What of the abducted child? It is denied its rightful kingdom, its rightful inheritance. Isn’t this exactly what we are doing to our children? A major theme of the Trans march in Manchester was “protect Trans Kids”. I am the mother of one of those trans kids so, of course, I want to see them protected. However, my thought is also this: that they may as well have been shouting “protect our kids” as in ALL children, because what we adults are doing at present is the same as the king in Rhiannon’s story. Our children deserve a better future than the one we are on course to leave them with.
Own Your Voice and Give A Voice To Others.
Every time we plant a tree, sign a petition, hug a tree, plant wild flowers and dig ponds in our gardens, we are giving a voice back to those who have had their voices silenced. Every time we tell a story we are standing on the shoulders of giants holding on to a red thread of tradition that is connected to an ancient, ancient wisdom going back to the dawn of time. Do not believe even for one second that these are “just fairy stories”.
I call these #wildwisdom #soulstories and with good reason, because that is exactly what they are.
In the story of Rhiannon eventually her child is restored to her and she gains her rightful place as Queen. There is still time to right wrongs. There is still time to give voice to the voiceless. There is still time to restore dignity to both people and nature as a whole. I certainly don’t have answers on how we make all the changes, but I do know about connecting deeply with the land and I do know the power of story, sacred speech and speaking from the heart.
We must learn from our history if we are to ride into our future on the back of a triumphant Rhiannon. Take these stories and make them yours.
Our Sunday MinisTree will see the usual tree prayers and blessings on the theme of the week. Make those yours too. This is wild beauty as activism, this is connecting with our Human Nature.
Blessings as ever
Amanda Claire x
PS If you like what you see you could make a donation to support this website, or buy an ecard, certificate or tee shirt and in doing so fund tree planting and protection of trees and communities across the world. Click on the little heart bottom right to show you care x