Alexandre opens with a poem by Bill Holm called Advice. From there we lament the loss of our Cinderella follow-up episode due to a Trickster in the Machine where we unfortunately lost some podcast gold to the great abyss of the internet.

This takes us to a deeper discussion on the lands we inhabit, of the cultural war on the imagination, the need for soul activism, what happens in holistic therapy, and much more as we dip in and out of the Grimm Brother's Cinderella, spending a lot of time sitting by the hazel bush, watered from the tears of lament, on mother's grave.

What does the name 'Cinderella' mean to you? Rags to riches? A coach turning into a pumpkin at midnight? Disney Princesses?

In fact, the story is a truly ancient one, appearing in cultures as diverse as China, Ireland and the First People's of North America in different forms. We will be exploring the Grimm Brothers version - a little bit more gritty than Disney - but pulsing with meaning and soul in a way that its modern cousin is not.

The story will take us on the journey from grief to desire and true purpose. In the backdrop we'll work through the south and north nodes of the moon - known as Ketu and Rahu in Vedic Astrology - the tail and the head of the dragon. Ketu, the south node, represents our past, our old karmic loops. Rahu, the north node, represents our own personal 'True North' - our soul's purpose in this lifetime.

We'll also be joined by our producer Emma Love, her first appearance on Tending the Sun Fire, as she walks us through her own personal experience of working with this story (and the nodes of the moon) in her life.

The Story on Abaton.blog
An article by the astrologer, Dana Gerdhart, on the Nodes of the Moon and Cinderella
A book with 29 versions of Cinderella from around the world and through history

This episode begins with an old Mayan tale, called Poder, which was traditionally told to young boys as an initiation story. Through this powerful story, we’re taken on a journey that gives us a glimpse into what may have contributed to the global crises we find ourselves in now. The story tells us about the nature of our gifts, the potential for what the world has to offer us, and the wrong kind of trouble that occurs when those inherent gifts are abandoned and disowned by the village and culture.

In this deep and heartfelt conversation, we speak to the lack of meaningful initiation and rites of passage that are missing from our westernised culture, the loss of elders and authentically initiated adults, and the grief of all that comes along with that.

We turn to this powerful myth, and other old tales from Greece, to look through the mythic lens to see if there are life-enhancing ways that might support us to proceed given the grand mess we find ourselves in. 

Resources

"The Genius Myth" - Book by Michael Meade 
“Nocaratanaje” - Ashaninka word for “healthy,” translates to "I carry harmony") 
“Tears & Threads of Unbelonging” - Poem by Alexandre Jodun
"The Rites of Passage" - Book by Arnold Van Gennep 

This episode opens with the Homeric Hymn to Hermes. At just one day old, Hermes wastes no time finding mischief and creating mayhem by stealing his older brother Apollo's 50 cattle and sacrificing two of them to the 12 gods of the Pantheon, including himself of course.

Come along for the ride as this 'delight maker' turns everything on its head and turns it into something else (such as the poor tortoise who becomes the world's first musical instrument). It's a playful journey, but a deep one in the end as we explore the place for the trickster in the world and in ourselves, and the energy that might be necessary as we more effectively challenge existing structures.

Astrologically, we'll be exploring Mercury, The Sun (Apollo) and Jupiter (Zeus) and their patterns in the sky both inner and outer.

References

Homer - The Homeric Hymns
Rafael López-Pedraza - Hermes and his Children
Karl Kerényi - Hermes: Guide of Souls
Lewis Hyde - Trickster Makes This World
Liz Greene & Howard Sasportas - The Inner Planets

What happens when we deny what's lurking in the shadows? What happens when we start denying the presence of Otherworldly, ancestral and non-rational ways of knowing? The old myths and stories tell us that something dangerous happens in those moments of chronic disavowal, which can eventually lead to a physical and mythological death of The Sacred.

In this week's episode, we begin with a telling of an old Scandanavian folktale, and rather chilling story, called "Erl-König (Erl-King)," that takes us into shadowy terrain where we begin to wonder about how, culturally speaking, we've found ourselves facing the current mythological monsters and trickster figures that deny The Sacred. We explore the loss of Soul within the modern psyche, the recurring theme of "the absent father" in our dominant modern culture, the missing medicine of healthy logos and masculinities, and the on-going conversation about the denial of femininities. 

Book, Poetry & Resource Mentions:
Erl-König Franz Schubert Orchestral/Visual Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS91p-vmSf0
"A Ritual to Read to Each Other" by William Stafford
"Seeing in the Dark" by Clarissa Pinkola Estés (Audiobook available at SoundsTrue)
"Dispelling Wetiko" by Paul Levy (Reference to “Aparticipatory Delusional Syndrome” or ADS)

In order to find your prince, you have to kiss a lot of frogs, right?

WRONG!

Not in the original story of The Frog King. Always the first story in their collection, the protagonist has a much more action-oriented and forceful role to play.

Chris and Alexandre break down the impact of this 'kissing frogs' myth on our collective psyche, and imagine what the world might look like if we were encouraged to take a stand for our sovereignty the way the Princess does in our story.

What happens to our lives when wildness, beauty, and feminine ways of being are exiled from our personal and collective experience? How did it come to be that the God of the Wild became the first and only Greek God to die?

In this episode, Alexandre & Chris dive straight into the wild forest to converse with the Fox Woman. As they venture into this old tale's territory, they wonder about personal, collective and mythic stories that shed light on this grand exile that has become the new normal in our modern dominant culture. 

Book & Poetry Mentions: 
"Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace" by John O'Donohue
"Jitterbug Perfume" by Tom Robbins
"The Holy Longing" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

When modern day humans who aren't familiar with the depth and breadth of Astrology think of The Zodiac, we often picture 'horoscopes' in newspapers summarising what kind of day we’ll have depending on our 'sign'.

Astrology, in fact, is an ancient mystery tradition that spans back into our collective ancestry, in one form or another, beyond recorded history.

At the centre of the Western tradition is the story of the Zodiac. It begins, with a bang, in Aries: the initiatory fire. It ends, and dissolves, back into Pisces: the 12th sign symbolising oceanic awareness.

In this episode, Chris brings us The Story of the Zodiac from the 'start with no start' to the 'end with no end'. It's like an archetypal scaffolding onto which our stories build themselves into their endless permutations.

In this episode, the journey of Tending The Sun Fire begins with a creation myth from Africa told by Alexandre. In this story from Zambia, God creates the world and all creatures, as the earth thrives in harmony and natural balance. However, one particular creature appears on the scene and causes great trouble through its ignorance, destructive habits and lack of reverence for the sanctity of life: the first human (man).  

Through inhabiting this story and wandering into it’s ancient territory, Chris and Alexandre reflect on the link between the troubles of the world and human folly, the contrast between  creation myths from other cultures, the important but missing presence of Women & The Feminine, approaching myths as an ancient technology, and more. 

At the heart of this episode, Alexandre and Chris discuss how we can each tap into the storehouse of wisdom that lies in creation myths, and stories in general, to help us find clues to navigate our personal and collective destinies. 

In this introductory episode, Alexandre and Chris give us some backstory. They reflect on their individual paths, and how those paths converged in the Southern Highlands of the east coast of Australia at a mystery school called, Metavision.

As next week will be all about creation myths, the hosts decided to briefly share their own personal myth of how Tending the Sun Fire came to be, and what they hope it might become as it heads off into the world on its own sacred journey.