Leaving school, roughly three and a half decades ago, it had been decided that I didn’t have a creative bone in my body. The experts (my teachers), who assessed this dire situation, concurred that not only was I not creative, I wasn’t really much of anything. Not sporty, not academic, not musical, not artistic… not, really anything deemed enough or worthy.

Visiting the careers counsellor in Year 12 was yet another confirmation. The suggestion, after a quick review of my file, was that I try my hand at hairdressing. Not because I had any interest in it, just because he couldn’t seem to come up with any other option.

It was a somewhat wobbly and cracked foundation from which to launch myself into womanhood, but there you have it, and so the adventure of adulting began.

I am happy to report that I have a happily ever after story to tell, but it took a while to get here.

It is pretty darn profound how deeply embedded beliefs can become when our thoughts, words, and deeds are repeatedly used to confirm a story we adopt as true.

I am hopeless at…I am masterful at…I am left with no choice but to…I am weighed down by…

Here is the thing that a very pricey education failed to teach me: the only participation award that can be handed to all children that is in integrity with truth is the ‘I am a creator’ award.

With every thought, word, and deed, we create our lives.

We think something.We speak it… or we don’t.We do it… or we don’t.

Lo and behold, something is created.

You might well ask, can it truly be that simple?

I am absolutely certain that each of us arrives with a divinely bestowed gift that we are here to discover and develop mastery of. Certainly, some discover it early, while others find it through trial and error.

It is worth noting, before I go on, that our thoughts, words, and deeds create not only our outer world but also our inner world.

I had a performance coach some years ago who shared a quote with me that has taken root deeply within my awareness, often arising with a nudge to keep me on track.

Your ability to keep your word to yourself is equivalent to your ability to experience joy in the world.

It took me some time to really grasp the truth of this. I understood it intellectually, but it was only in the embodiment of it that the wisdom came.

I want to unpack this nugget of wisdom with you, because I know how life-changing it can be.

To do this, I want to begin with a story.

A traditional story that has been told to children for hundreds of years, with the trust that when the time was right, it would blossom into wisdom that would serve them well on their quest to become all that they were born to be.

What makes these stories different is that they are designed to speak the language of the right brain — the creative, intuitive, deep feminine knowing that awakens through story, rather than the left, logical, masculine side.

I will discuss masculine and feminine energy in more detail later, but for now, know that, like archetypes, they are each part of every human.

The story is called The Frog Prince and Faithful Henry.

If you know it, I encourage you to listen with fresh ears and an open heart. If you don’t, then you are in for a treat, because this story is rich in archetypal wisdom, symbolism, and meaning, and contains a map of initiation from one chapter of life to another… regardless of age.

When you are ready, be still and listen…

In olden times, when people could have by wishing…

To access the unpacking of this initiation story, subscribe to The Inner Sanctum - $88/month or $888/year.

I want to try something a little different with how we unpack the story of The Frog Prince and Faithful Henry. As I explore the idea of this podcast and the kind of content I want to create within The Eudaimonia Library, I truly look forward to hearing from you—what you enjoy and what you'd love to see more of.

The way I want to talk about this story is with a more conversational energy. Yes, I’m speaking into the void, but you’re absolutely invited to send me your thoughts, questions, and anything that stirs within you. Rather than presenting a structured list like I did in the first episode, I’m going to flow in a looser, more intuitive way—because that’s more aligned with the purpose of these stories.

These stories are here to plant seeds of wisdom. As you listen, different aspects may blossom within you at different times. Something will click. You’ll feel a moment of resonance—a "ding"—a connection to your own lived experience.

So let’s begin. Let’s see what unfolds.

The Frog Prince and Faithful Henry is the very first tale in every original Brothers Grimm compilation. Why? Because it’s an initiation story. A beginning.

The opening line is one of my favourites: “In olden times, when wishing still helped...”

We often relegate wishing to the realm of fantasy or woo-woo. But if you remember what I spoke about in the first episode, our lives are created by our thoughts, words, and deeds. When those three align, when we get clear on what we want, we actually do create our reality. That is the magic of wishing. It’s not illogical—it’s deeply intuitive.

Now let’s explore some of the archetypes in this story.

We begin with a princess. She is the archetype of innocence, of pure spirit, uncorrupted and untested. And then there's the golden ball. The ball falls into a spring so deep that no one can see the bottom. This is a symbol of something lost. A part of the self descends into the unconscious.

When I think about losing a part of myself, I go back to age 13, starting boarding school. I’d been confident, popular, and involved in school plays. Then suddenly, the best friend I had grown up with stopped talking to me, for reasons I didn’t understand. It broke something in me. It was like the rug had been pulled out. My self-image shattered. I lost trust in people. That’s when a part of me rolled deep into the water.

You may have your own moment like this—the first time you lost a piece of your childhood self.

Then comes the frog. He offers help. And here’s where the princess speaks words that don’t align with her thoughts. She says what she needs to say to get what she wants—but it’s not the truth. It’s a moment of manipulation. And then she breaks her promise.

This is something we all do at different stages of life. Sometimes we don’t feel safe enough to speak the truth. We don’t know how. However, when we start to expand our emotional vocabulary, we can begin to align our thoughts, words, and actions.

In my language, the goal is serenity. That tranquil state of peace—not happiness, not sadness—just stillness. I often share the Serenity Prayer:

God, Mother Nature, the Universe—grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

That’s what we’re seeking. And this story is a map to it.

Let’s look at the masculine and feminine energies. The masculine is logic, structure, and protection. The feminine is intuition, imagination, and ideas. One of my favourite metaphors: the masculine is the box, the container. The feminine is what lives inside.

When our ideas (feminine) don’t have structure (masculine), they flicker and fade like The Little Match Girl’s visions. But when balanced, they can build empires—like The Eudaimonia Library.

In this story, the frog is the immature masculine, and the princess is the immature feminine. The frog asks something of her that she’s not ready to give. But the king—symbolising the mature masculine—says: You must keep your word.

This is a lesson about integrity. About the maturation of the inner masculine and feminine. About becoming whole.

The story reaches its peak in the bedroom—a sacred space. The frog wants to be in the bed. The princess is repulsed. And here, the modern fairy tales often sanitise what happens next.

But in the original story, she picks up the frog and throws him against the wall.

This is a moment of fury, of awakening. It’s the breaking point—the kind of shocking event that changes everything. It leads to transformation. And that is the moment the frog becomes the prince.

In my life, one of those moments came when my first husband walked out. We had four children under the age of eight. And while that moment was pivotal, the real awakening came a little later, when I found my voice. When I stood up for myself. When the wild woman in me came alive. That was my "frog against the wall" moment.

And then we meet Faithful Henry.

He wrapped iron bands around his heart when the prince was transformed into a frog. This is symbolic of grief. Of heartbreak. Of the way we shut down when we lose love.

For me, that happened when I lost the ability to trust love, perhaps even in childhood. And it wasn’t until I had children of my own that those bands around my heart began to break.

This story is about the return to love. The return to wholeness. The reunion of the masculine and feminine within.

So I hope this has given you something to ponder, something to feel into. Let me know if you’d like journaling questions or prompts—I’m happy to create them.

And finally, I want to share what’s coming next inside The Eudaimonia Library:

* The Vault: where all the paywalled content lives.

* The Illuminarium: a high-level mastermind where we connect live via Zoom.

* The Serenity Sanctuary: a creative heart-and-hands space launching soon, with group calls, storytelling, and creative integration—writing, drawing, sewing, and more.

If this speaks to you, let me know. I’m shaping it now, and your input matters. The likely launch is in September. There’ll be early bird offers too.

Thank you for walking with me.So much love—and bye for now.

x Edwina

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